Bitter Reunion
by Nyiestra
Summary: Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit, but they get a lot more than they bargained for. COMPLETED Jan 10th.
1. Hoth

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

**A Note:** This story is part of my Jesina Dreis series, falling between "A New Path" and "Inner Demons, Outer Evils." They can, more or less, be read alone – as evidenced by the fact that I'm writing them all at the same time. But it'll probably all make sense in the end.

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Chapter 1: Hoth

---------------

Wedge Antilles sighed. He could foresee how this briefing was going to go. Not well at all would be putting it mildly. "We've got a new assignment, and I warn you in advance, you're all going to hate it." He exchanged glances with Tycho Celchu, and both of them glanced at Wes Janson and Hobbie Klivian. "Some more than others." There was no joviality in his tone.

Hobbie merely shook his head and slouched in his seat. "What are you doing to us now?"

Wedge held up his hands defensively. "I'm not doing a thing. I tried like hell to get us out of it. This is all command – and, for once, it's not Cracken who's screwing us over." He gestured to Tycho, wishing again he'd had the opportunity to brief Janson and Hobbie privately. "Turn on the holoprojector," he told him, keeping his eyes fixed on Wes and Hobbie.

Toward the front of the room, an image of a blue-white planet appeared, and Hobbie and Janson's expressions changed instantly. Janson's jaw hit the table he was sitting behind, and Hobbie was unable to keep the shock off his face. "No way, Wedge." There was no laughter in Janson's voice. The protest he'd just lodged was deadly serious.

Hobbie looked shaken. "Who's sending us there, Wedge?" he asked slowly.

Wedge looked at him with concern. He'd expected the man to take it badly, but this was worse than he'd thought. "Ackbar, primarily. It's because of information Cracken's outer-rim agents picked up, but he's actually on our side on this. He wants someone else sent. But Ackbar wants a small group out there that can be relatively self-sufficient, militarily speaking."

"Why?" Hobbie's voice was very quiet.

"There's been a lot of activity in and around the system. It's not specifically Imperial activity, but it is, at least, according to Intelligence, financed by the Empire." He paused and sipped from a bottle of water. "Cracken's personnel assigned to that region are based out of a rebuilt section of Echo Base, and they want some military presence there without it being overt. They're also sending a Victory-class that is scheduled to arrive just after we do, but that ship will not actually be in the system.

"So the idea is that we're there, on the base, in case someone realizes that NRI has people there and tries to make a move against them? To hold off any attack until the Vic can get in system?" Corran asked.

"And as an added fighter complement once they arrive," Tycho replied. "They'd send the Vic in itself except that there's been activity in the system itself, and Cracken wants to find out what's going on. He doesn't want to scare them off."

Wes, still angry, spoke up again. "How are we getting there, and when are we leaving?"

"We're getting there via a borrowed Corellian Corvette that was secured thanks to Karrde. It's intended to give the impression of smugglers or pirates passing through the system, in case anyone is there to be watching. We'll remain on board until we can be reasonably sure that we're the only ones in system."

"And when do we leave?" Wes asked again.

"Forty hours from now, and 0600. The Corvette is supposed to rendezvous with _Mon Remonda_ by 0400 hours. It's piloted by a borrowed New Republic crew," Wedge answered. He made a mental note to talk to Wes privately – and Hobbie, too, for that matter – before they left for Hoth. "Anything else?"

"Cold weather gear?" Inyri Forge asked.

"Pack warm clothing. It's cold there anyway, but where the base is located is actually in the winter season right now. It's my understanding, though, that anything we'll really need in the way of actual gear specific to the weather is already on-planet courtesy of NRI." He paused before asking again, "Anything else?"

When no one spoke, he ended the briefing with, "Get some sleep. And if you feel like partaking in the ship's amenities – namely, having one last drink and hoping it'll keep you warm for the duration of our stay – do it tonight. No alcohol after 1400 hours tomorrow." He knew his pilots well. "Dismissed."

As the group broke up, they began to talk among themselves. But more than one pair of concerned eyes watched as Hobbie wordlessly left the briefing room, Janson right behind him.

---------------

Rather than calling Wes into his office the next day, Wedge stopped by his friend's quarters that night. The man didn't look very happy to see him. "How are you doing?" he asked, sitting down after Wes had dropped into a chair.

"Oh, I'm just great!" he snapped.

"Wes, I fought this for six hours this morning. I had Leia on my side, Bel Iblis on my side, Cracken on my side – though I'm not sure if I want to know why. But Ackbar wanted someone who knew the region and a squadron that has a lot of experience taking on numerically superior forces alone." Even to his ears, it sounded like a poor excuse for something that he wasn't being told – which is what he expected was going on here.

"There are NRI people there. They know the system. They could help whoever was sent there. And they could send Cracken's Aces. Why us?"

"This was Ackbar's decision. I don't know why. But we have to live with it."

"Tell that to Hobbie. I'm sure it'll be a great comfort to him," Wes retorted.

Wedge sighed. He'd known that the other pilot was the source of Wedge's hostility. "How is he?"

"How do you think?" Wes was on his feet now. "He died, Wedge. Except for how blasted cold it was, he wouldn't have survived to make it into bacta. The cold froze his body so we were able to save him. But for however many minutes he was out there, he was dead. And now he's being sent back. How do you think he's doing?!"

Wedge could imagine exactly how Hobbie was doing. And Wes knew it.

"Wes, this isn't my fault. I did everything I could. Do I look like I'm happy about it?"

With that, the Tanaabian seemed to deflate. "No. I know. It's just so aggravating." He kicked the chair he'd been sitting in a few moments earlier.

"I know."

Wes looked thoughtful now, though the anger was still hard to miss. "You think something bigger is going on." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah, I do," Wedge replied, glad to see Wes acting rationally again. "Ackbar was dead set on us going, and no one else, with no good reason. Cracken was dead set against us going. He even suggested sending the Aces. Something's up, and they won't tell me what."

---------------

Inyri walked into the _Mon Remonda_'s lounge. Glancing around as she made her way to the bar, she caught sight of Hobbie Klivian, sitting by himself at a table against the far wall. Remembering his reaction in the briefing earlier that afternoon, she decided that maybe his being alone wasn't the best idea. She changed course and headed over, taking in the sight of the empty glass and nearly empty bottle of bad Corellian ale sitting on the table in front of him. He was leaning his head back against the wall, and his eyes were closed. As she got closer, she was hit with the smell of the alcohol, and wasn't sure if it was coming from the bottle or his breath. As she slipped into the booth, she decided it was probably the latter. "Hobbie?" she asked gently.

He straightened slightly – as much as he probably could given his current state – and opened his glazed eyes. "'Nyri?" he slurred.

"Yeah, it's me. How you doing?" She could hear the worry in her own voice. She'd seen just about every Rogue drunk before – had a few of those nights herself, as a matter of fact – but she'd never seen Hobbie like this. She waved over a server droid as he leaned back again without giving her an answer. "How long has he been here?"

The droid glanced at the chrono on the wall. "Fifty-six minutes."

Inyri's eyes widened as the server moved on. She wondered if that was some kind of record, even for the Rogues. "Hobbie, can you walk?"

He sat up again and looked at her for a second. "Dunno," he mumbled, shaking his head.

She sighed. Not that she'd expected any other reply, but it would have been nice. She stood up and walked around to his side of the booth. Grabbing his hands, she tried to pull him up, finally accepting help from a lieutenant who walked by and observed her struggle.

"Can you manage?" the unnamed lieutenant asked.

"Yeah. His quarters aren't too far," she replied. She wasn't sure exactly which unit was his, but she'd figure it out when she got there. If she couldn't, she'd comm Wes. He'd know. So would Wedge and Tycho, but she didn't want to have them see Hobbie like this. Though maybe that would be a good idea. Something was clearly very wrong.

She struggled down the corridor with an arm around Hobbie's waist, and his arm over her shoulder. He mumbled a few incoherent words, and then fell silent. He was a lot heavier than she'd figured. They reached the turbolift – barely – and Inyri was glad to be able to lean him against the wall. She didn't dare let go, though, for fear that he'd either slide or fall to the floor. And then she'd never get him up again.

The door slid open on the deck where the Rogues had been assigned quarters. "Come on, Klivian," she muttered, pulling him along with her.

She got him down the corridor to their section and looked at the doors in dismay. "Hobbie, do you know which room is yours?" No response. "Hobbie, what's your access code?" No response. "Damn."

She glanced down the corridor toward her own room. She doubted that Wes would know the code to Hobbie's. She could always get Wedge or Tycho to override the lock. But she wanted to give Hobbie a chance to sober up before he saw either of them. "Let's go. Just a few more meters." She led – dragged, more like – him toward her quarters.


	2. A Lot to Deal With

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

**A Note:** This story is part of my Jesina Dreis series, falling between "A New Path" and "Inner Demons, Outer Evils." They can, more or less, be read alone – as evidenced by the fact that I'm writing them all at the same time. But it'll probably all make sense in the end.

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Chapter 2: A Lot to Deal With

---------------

It was 2200 hours before Hobbie woke up. When he did, Inyri was sitting in a chair across from her bed. She'd spent the last few hours alternating between reading on her datapad and checking on him. His groan as he rolled onto his back told her he was coming around.

She got up and crossed the floor, perching on the edge of the bed. His face was flushed and he was sweating. She brushed his hair back from his forehead. "Hobbie?" she asked, deliberately keeping her voice soft.

He blinked furiously and, after a moment, managed to keep his eyes open. "Inyri?" he mumbled, trying to sit up.

"Shh," she said. "I'm pretty sure you're still a little drunk, Hobbie." She pushed him gently back onto the bed.

He shook his head and moaned. "I feel terrible."

"I bet. You downed almost a whole bottle of Corellian ale in less than an hour. You couldn't even walk back to your room."

He looked around when she mentioned his room. "Where am I?"

"My quarters. I didn't know the code for your room. You weren't in any shape to tell me, and I didn't want to call Wedge or Tycho. I didn't think you'd want them seeing you like that."

"No, not really," he agreed. He hesitated. "I don't want to bother you any more, but would you mind getting me some water?"

"No problem." She stood and walked into the refresher. He heard the water run and she returned with a glass. "Here you go. You want some crackers or anything?"

He shook his head. "I don't think I can keep anything down."

She nodded in agreement. "Probably not." She hesitated. She'd spent the hours when he'd been asleep – unconscious? – reading up on the Battle at Hoth. She'd known a little about the battle before, but hadn't realized just how hard a loss it had been for the Rogues. Still, Hobbie was a seasoned soldier. She understood the difficulty in going back to a place that held bad memories, but she didn't understand why it was affecting him this badly. And she wasn't sure if she should ask.

So she didn't – not directly anyway. "You feel like talking?"

"You mean about why I just got so drunk?"

"That...or anything."

He sighed and looked away from her. "Not now, honestly."

"All right."

He pushed himself fully into a sitting position and swung his legs off the bed, wincing at the wave of dizziness and nausea that hit him. "Inyri, I don't want you to think I'm not grateful for your help, and for not telling Wedge and Tycho. It's just...I've got a lot to deal with, I guess, and drinking wasn't the smartest thing."

"No, it wasn't."

"Inyri, I—" He shook his head and sighed. "I'm sorry. Honestly, I appreciate your help. I just really don't feel up to it tonight." He pushed himself off the bed and onto his feet, swaying as he stood.

She jumped up and caught him before he fell. "Hobbie, you don't have to talk to me. I just thought it might help. You don't need to run away from me."

"I'm not. I just think it'd be better if I went back to my own quarters."

"Want some help?"

Thinking about how he'd almost fallen a minute before, he nodded. "Yeah, actually. That might be a good idea."

Inyri slipped an arm around his waist again and walked with him to the door, pausing to open it before they stepped out into the corridor. They made it the ten meters or so down to his door, and Inyri marveled at how much easier the trip was this time around. Just as he was keying in the access code, Wes came around the corner, and Inyri swore under her breath. She could just imagine the punishment she'd be taking later on tonight and tomorrow – and for the rest of this mission, most likely.

Hobbie didn't seem to notice Wes or hear Inyri's reaction as they made their way into his room. She helped him settle on the bed and filled a bottle of water for him, but didn't stay much longer than that, and they didn't really talk anymore. She bade him good night, reminded him again that she'd be around if he needed to talk, and then left. Janson was waiting outside.

"What was that all about?" he asked teasingly.

"My quarters," she replied tersely, walking right by him and keying in the access code.

"Thanks for the invite," he joked, "but I don't want to mess with my friend's girl." He followed her into the room.

"First off, I'm not his girl. And don't so much as suggest it to anyone." She looked him right in the eye, her face only centimeters from his. "Sit down." He sat.

She put her datapad on the desk and sat back where she had been when Hobbie was in here. "I was walking him back to his room because he's been here for the last four hours or so sleeping off a bottle of Corellian ale."

Wes gaped at her. "Hobbie? Are you serious?"

Inyri scowled. "Yes, I'm serious. I went down to the bar for a quick drink, and he was there. According to the server droid, he'd been there less than an hour, and had already nearly emptied a large bottle. I got him up here after some lieutenant helped me get him halfway upright in the lounge. I was going to bring him to his room, but he was barely conscious and I didn't know his access code. I figured that everyone was better off if I didn't call Wedge or Tycho, and I didn't think that you'd know it either." She looked at him. "Do you know why?"

He was quiet for a long minute. "Yeah. Wedge and I had knock-down drag-out fight over it about three hours ago. I knew he was upset, but I didn't know it was this bad."

"I tried to get him to talk to me, but he wouldn't. He said he had a lot to think about."

"Yeah. Don't take it personally. Hoth is...a sensitive issue for all four of us. Especially him. He'll come around. It just might take a while." He stood up. "I'm going to go talk to Wedge."

"Don't tell him!" Inyri exclaimed. "Hobbie doesn't want him to know."

"I'm not going to tell Wedge that he got drunk. I'm just going to warn him that he's not okay." He walked to the door, but turned back. "Thanks, Inyri."

She watched him leave, wondering what, exactly, was going on. There had to be more to this than just a bad defeat.


	3. A Long Story

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 3: A Long Story

---------------

"How you doing?" Inyri asked Hobbie as he sat down at her table at breakfast.

He groaned. "I feel like there are Ewoks tap dancing on my skull." He sipped his caf and shuddered, pushing away the plate he'd just brought over with him.

She shook her head. "Don't say that to Wes. The last thing we need is for him to get any more ideas involving Ewoks."

"Speaking of Wes, was he in the corridor last night? I seem to remember seeing him at some point."

"Yes." Inyri finished her cup of caf and took a bite of toast. "I told him why I was helping you." She hesitated, unsure how much to tell him. "He said he was going to talk to Wedge. He promised not to tell him you were drunk, but to say that you weren't okay."

"Terrific," Hobbie sighed. "This is going to be bad enough for all of us without them constantly keeping an eye on me."

She frowned at his comment. There was definitely something more to Hoth than what she'd been able to find through her research. "What's so significant about Hoth? I mean, I know the battle was bad – everyone in the New Republic military knows that – but I don't understand why you and Wes, and Tycho and Wedge are acting like this."

"It's a long story, Inyri."

"Fine." She stood to go throw out her trash. She was getting tired of being brushed aside. She wasn't normally a nosy person, but when something had one of her squadron mates – one of her friends, though she admittedly wasn't that close with the older members of the squadron – drowning himself in a bottle of ale, she wanted to know about it.

"Sit down, Inyri," Hobbie said wearily. "Or rather, come with me." He rose slowly, trying to ignore the pounding in his head and failing. "Sithspit," he groaned.

"Your head?" she asked.

He nodded. "Funny how every time you go to pick up a bottle of something you forget how bad it felt last time."

Inyri had to laugh. "Come on, you're a pilot, you can handle it."

"Ten years ago I could. It felt like all we did on Hoth – before the battle anyway – was go on patrol, drink, and play sabacc."

"That's not so bad." Inyri enjoyed playing sabacc with the boys. She could hold her own, and hold her liquor as well.

"No," he agreed. "But the rest of it – from a few days before the battle, really – pretty much obliterates any of the good parts. Not to mention the fact that we were drinking all the time because it was the easiest way to keep warm." They stopped walking to discard their cold caf and Hobbie's uneaten breakfast, and then left the cafeteria.

Inyri followed him back to his quarters and waited as he let her inside. "I know you want to know what's going on, and I remember something along the line of being really short with you last night, though my brain is still kind of foggy, and I'm hoping that Wes'll take pity on me for that and doesn't try to make my head explode."

"He seemed pretty concerned last night, so I don't think you have much to worry about. Unless he decides it's his duty to cheer you up, in which case you might want to hide in here all day."

"Yeah." He paused. "I owe you for last night."

She was on her feet quickly. "I don't want you talking to me just because you feel indebted to me. No thanks." She headed for the door, but he caught her arm, despite the fact that the quick movement made his head spin.

Inyri saw him sway as he reached for her and stepped toward him to steady him. "Sit down, Hobbie. I'm not exactly used to men falling at my feet. Other than Wes. But I'm not sure I should label him as a man. Child is more appropriate."

"Don't be so hard on Wes," Hobbie defended the other man. "It's just his way of dealing with things. If he didn't joke around, he'd probably go crazy."

"So instead of him going crazy, he drives all of us crazy?"

"Exactly." Hobbie managed a wan smile. They were both quiet for a minute. Finally, Hobbie brought their conversation back to where they'd been before she'd tried to leave. "How much do you know about Hoth?"

"I know that the Alliance was hit hard, and that Rogue Squadron especially took heavy losses." She shrugged. "I know the basics. Probably as much as the average officer."

"Rogue Squadron had only five survivors. It was almost four. I crashed, and was actually dead for four and a half minutes. The only reason I survived was because of the extreme cold. Needless to say, it wasn't the best experience of my life."

Inyri sat silently, watching him. He was looking in her direction, but not actually at her. He had kind of a vacant look in his eyes, as if he was actually seeing the battle all over again. He looked frightened, and resigned.

"It's not just the battle that makes going back hard, though." He was meeting her eyes now. "Have you ever heard the name Jesina Dreis?" She shook her head. "I didn't think so. No one really talks about her anymore."

"Who is she?"

"She and Tycho grew up together, on Alderaan. Her parents were killed and she left for Corellia, where her father was from. She got into smuggling, working with Booster, and met Wedge, and then started working with the Alliance because of Wedge. She's actually the one who helped Tycho go from the Empire to the Alliance."

Inyri had a feeling she knew where this conversation was going. "Did something happen to her?"

He nodded. "She was running cargo between us and Sullust and was ambushed near Belsavis when she dropped out of hyperspace for a course correction. We got word about it only three days before we had to evacuate. We'd all gotten to know her pretty well – Wedge and Tycho especially, of course – and it hit all of us pretty hard."

---------------

Wes managed to catch Wedge and Tycho together the next morning, in Wedge's office. "So, Hobbie spent a few hours in Inyri's room last night," he said casually, after closing the door behind him.

"Oh?" Tycho raised an eyebrow at him.

"Wes—" Wedge began warningly. He could just envision what their stay on Hoth would be like if Inyri and Hobbie had become involved.

"Would you two give me a second?" Wes interrupted. "He was sleeping off a bottle of Corellian ale after she dragged him out of the bar." He felt marginally guilty about telling them he'd been drinking after promising Inyri that he wouldn't, but a few hours of thinking had made him decide that they ought to know, and that it was worth making Hobbie made at him.

"Because of Hoth, I'm assuming?" Wedge asked, sighing heavily. He'd known Hobbie wasn't going to take it well, and again wished he'd spoken to him and Wes privately before he'd told everyone else. Maybe if he had, Hobbie would have been in a better state of mind last night. Then again, maybe not. Of all of his pilots, Hobbie was likely the most difficult to read. He could always count on Hobbie's outward pessimism, but he rarely knew what the man was really thinking.

"Of course. Look, I promised Inyri I wouldn't tell you that he'd been drinking, so don't say anything to him."

"You promised Inyri?" Tycho repeated, unsure of how, exactly, she fit into this.

"Apparently, she was going to bring him back to his room but didn't know the code and he wasn't in any shape to tell her. She thought about comming you to let her in and get him in bed, but decided not to because she didn't think you'd want him to know. When he woke up, she told him that, and he told her he was glad she hadn't. So when I talked to her, and she told me what happened, and I told her I was going to talk to you, she made me promise not to tell you he'd been drinking, because he didn't want you to know." He exhaled as he finished.

Tycho shook his head to clear it. He'd lost Wes halfway through that circular explanation, but he figured he'd gotten the gist of it. "Why did you tell us?" he asked. Not to say he wasn't glad that Wes had told them.

"Because I thought about it and decided that you probably should know, in case it became a problem. He's more upset about it than I thought he was," he finished.

"Same here." Wedge frowned. "Do you think it'll become a problem?"

Wes shrugged. "Honestly? Not really. I think it just hit him pretty hard. He'll think about it for a few days, realize the whole thing isn't going to repeat itself, and come around. Besides, I got the feeling from Inyri that she wasn't going to let him get away without telling her what was wrong, and I think that'll be good."

"All right," Wedge said after a long moment. "Keep an eye on him, will you? And ask her to, too. And I want to know if this happens again," he said sternly. "No matter who you promise."

"Hey, I told you this time, didn't I?" he pointed out as he slipped out the door.


	4. Sithspit

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 4: Sithspit

---------------

The Corellian Corvette arrived exactly on time the following day, along with a freighter that Wedge found very familiar. "What's the name of that freighter?" he asked one of the bridge officers.

The lieutenant glanced at a screen. "Ice Princess, sir."

Tycho laughed. "That's appropriate on so many levels."

The woman glanced at him, confused, but was reassured by the looks of confusion on Hobbie and Janson's faces. "Excuse me, sir?"

"Yeah, Tych, what are you talking about?"

"Well, there's the fact that we're headed to Hoth. Then there's the fact that I can think of a good many people who would describe Mara Jade that way."

"Mara's here?" Hobbie asked, his voice apprehensive. Generally, whenever anyone they were associated with ran into Mara, trouble followed very quickly. Very quickly. And, as far as he was concerned, this mission was headed for enough trouble on its own, without any help from outsiders.

"It would seem," Wedge replied. He turned to the lieutenant. "I want to talk to that ship's captain."

"She'll be docking momentarily, sir. You can meet her in the hangar." Wedge thanked the lieutenant and left, followed by the others.

By the time they reached the hangar, Mara had already docked and was inside. Her flight suit was folded down to her waist, but carefully positioned so she had easy access to her blaster. "Antilles," she greeted Wedge, nodding to the others. "Don't look so happy to see me."

"I would be happy to see you, except that trouble seems to follow you everywhere you go."

"No, trouble follows Skywalker around. I only just happen to be the unlucky one who's with him whenever it finds him," she retorted as they shook hands.

"What brings you here, Mara?" Wedge asked.

"I have cargo for your friends on that blasted ball of ice."

Wes smirked. "I hope you brought warmer clothes than that, Mara."

"I hope they space you, Janson," she shot back.

Wedge ignored their spat. "Have you been out there, yet?" When she nodded he asked, "Who's on-planet?" He hated having to ask her, but Cracken had refused to tell him, for some reason.

Mara kept her face carefully blank. He'd find out for himself soon enough EXACTLY who was there. "The regional director, a woman, Colonel Keyra Nitram, is running the base."

Wedge groaned, visions of Adumar dancing through his mind, and she looked at him curiously. "What?"

Hobbie stifled a laugh at his CO. "The last time we ran into one of Intel's RD's, we all nearly ended up dead. And then Wedge ran a civil war."

"Ah, yes, Adumar. I'd forgotten. Well, if it makes you feel any better, your fiancé is down there, too." Wedge looked relieved at that, but still nervous just the same.

---------------

The trip out to Hoth, though long, was uneventful. Entering the base was the part that Wedge was most concerned about. As he walked through the strange yet familiar corridors of the restored Echo Base, memories assaulted him every time he turned a corner. He remembered the nights of sabacc that had nearly led Tycho to give up the game forever, and the tense night that they'd all spent waiting in his quarters until morning came so that they could go looking for Luke and Solo. He thought about the afternoon General Riekaan had told him and Tycho about Jesina's death, and the night they broke their own drinking records trying to forget about that afternoon.

Voices dragged him out of his thoughts. "Keyra, Jade's staying the night. Where do you want her?"

"Anywhere where I can keep an eye on her. I wasn't born yesterday. She and Kaarde aren't helping us out of the goodness of their hearts."

When Wedge heard the voice, he stopped short, half a meter away from walking into the woman, who'd been walking backward as she talked. She, however, didn't stop, walking right into him. "Oh!" she exclaimed.

She started to turn. "I'm so—" But she froze, the apology dying in her throat. "Sithspit."

Wedge stared at her. He'd last seen her years before. The only problem with seeing her now was that she was dead.

---------------

Keyra Nitram shook her head as Rik asked her where to put Mara Jade. She'd been expecting them to pull something like this. Jade and Kaarde had been far too selfless for too long. She turned to face him, continuing to walk backward as she spoke. "Anywhere where I can keep an eye on her. I wasn't born yesterday. She and Kaarde aren't helping us out of the goodness of their hearts." She didn't turn back around quickly enough, bumping into someone.

She began to apologize as she turned. "I'm so—" She froze. "Sithspit."

Rik saw her stiffen. "Keyra, you all right?" Then he noticed Wedge and saluted. "General."

Wedge glanced at him, returning the salute. Then he took her arm. Keyra was tempted to pull away, but had the distinct feeling that he wouldn't let her. "I think we need to talk, Agent Nitram."

Rik chose now – 'Of all times,' she thought to herself – to be protective of her. "Ma'am, is everything all right?"

"Yes, it's fine," she managed. Go find a room for Captain Jade. And try not to melt any more walls." It was a poor attempt at a joke, but true just the same. Her people hadn't yet adjusted to living inside a block of ice.

As Rik walked away, Wedge pulled her into the nearest empty room. It happened to be the office she'd assigned him to. "This is your office," she said weakly.

---------------

Wedge stared at her. He couldn't think of anything to say. Her athletic figure was hidden under layers of warm clothing, and her dark brown hair was cut shorter than he'd seen it last, just brushing her shoulders. There were a few more lines on her face than he remembered – but years at war would do that to a person. The fire in her green eyes was, however, exactly as he remembered.

After a couple of minutes of awkward silence, she was the one who finally spoke. You've done very well for yourself, Wedge."

"You too, Jesina. Or should I be calling you Keyra?" There was little he could think of to say to a woman whose ship was supposed to have been blown out of space more than fifteen years ago – with her still on board.

"It doesn't really matter. Jesina is fine. I've come to miss my own name. No one knows me that way anymore."

"That could be because you're supposed to be dead." He waved his hand dismissively. "It's just a theory, but...."

She sighed, dropping into a chair and resting her chin on her hands. Looking up at him she said softly, "I promise you that I have an explanation, Wedge."

"I certainly hope so."

"Will you listen?"

"Of course. This should, at the very least, be an interesting story." He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice. He sat in the other chair in the office which, reminiscent of the Alliance, was an ejection seat out of an x-wing.

"The attack on me at Belsavis was real. By that time the Empire – in the form of the ship Tycho had been stationed on – knew the name of the person – and the freighter – that had helped him defect, and they were watching me. Somehow, they intercepted my flight plans and arranged to get the drop on me. They thought they had me, but they didn't account for the fact that I store in the computer microjumps out of any system I plan to jump into."

Wedge nodded. Jesina had an incredibly advanced astronavigation system installed in her ship. It was a great precaution, especially for someone in her business.

"I jumped out under fire, and the _Nightwind_ took a beating, leaving behind enough debris for an overzealous Captain to convince himself that they'd destroyed me."

"So you decided to stay dead?"

"I wish it had been my decision to make," she said. This time, she was the one who was bitter.

Wedge frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I hit my head – hard – when they opened fire on him. And because I was on a classified assignment, everything identifying me – or my ship – had been eliminated. I was broadcasting a false ID for the ship, and I had no identification on me at all. So when I lost my memory..." she trailed off.

"There was no way for you to find out who you were."

"Exactly."

"You obviously have your memory back now," Wedge pointed out.

"Yes. I regained it back a few years ago. But I'll get to that. After the jump, I set down on Belsavis. And later I found out something Cracken had never told me – he tracked me. And when I set down on Belsavis instead of Sullust, he knew something was wrong. So he came after me."

"What did Cracken have to do with any of this?" Wedge asked. Even then, Cracken had been high up in Alliance Intelligence – and a thorn in the Rogues' side.

"I was already working for Intel. That's a long story, and one I don't feel like telling right now."

He nodded. He didn't particularly like the answer, but he didn't have much choice.

She stared at her hands. "It didn't take him long to find me. I mean, I wasn't hiding or anything. Force!" she sighed. "I didn't even know I had a reason to hide. Anyway, he told me who I was – even showed me a holo taken with you, Wes, Tycho, and Hobbie. But I just couldn't remember. And a doctor told him not to push me. So Cracken gave me a new identity and listed Jesina Dreis as killed-in-action."

"How did you regain your memory?" Wedge asked her.

"There was a special thing on the news commemorating Alderaan. And on it they profiled two Rebel heroes from Alderaan – Leia and Tycho. And they flashed that same holo that Cracken showed me – the five of us on Hoth – and everything just came back to me."

"Why didn't you come back?"

"Because by then I'd been out of your lives for so long that I thought it would be better for everyone if I just stayed dead. You'd built lives for yourselves, found girlfriends." She grinned. "I've worked with Winter and Iella, by the way. They're very impressive. And I had a life as Keyra Nitram."

He sighed. He understood her reasons. He really did. And he couldn't blame her for going along with Cracken's plan in the first place. He could – and did – blame Cracken for lying to them for all these years. And for trying to hide her from them even longer. "So this is why Cracken didn't want Ackbar to send us."

"And why Ackbar was determined to send you."

Wedge nodded. His insistence made sense now. "So, regional director, a colonel. You've done well for yourself."

She smiled. "So have you, General." Then she paused. "But I've made a decision. I made it when I learned you were coming here, but I'd been thinking about it for a while. I'm leaving NRI."

"What? Why?"

"Because I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the games and the politics and the backstabbing. I've talked to Cracken and he's agreed to approve my transfer – either to Fleet Command or, my preference, Starfighter Command." She studied his face silently, wondering if he'd understood what she was trying to say.

He hesitated. "I'll see. My first responsibility is to Tycho, Wes, and Hobbie. Besides..." he trailed off, not needing to say that he wasn't ready to trust her. She was, after all, an Intelligence agent who had been dead to them a long, long time.


	5. Recognition and Regret

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 5: Recognition and Regret

---------------

After his conversation with Jesina – Keyra, he reminded himself, at least for now – Wedge headed back to the hangar. Tycho had commed him to tell him that they'd found Iella, and he was looking forward to seeing her – and to finding out how much she knew about Jesina. "Keyra," he corrected himself, saying the name out loud, as if that would cause it to make enough sense to actually stay in his brain.

He caught sight of his pilots and approached them slowly, wondering how to do this. He glanced around for Iella as he walked, and saw that she was talking to Mara – who, apparently, Keyra didn't trust very much. When Mara glanced in his direction, he waved them over.

He reached into his flightsuit pocket and pulled out his datapad. After bringing up a certain image, he handed it to Iella. "Do you recognize her?"

Iella nodded. "It's Keyra Nitram," she answered, giving Wedge a strange look. Then she glanced at Tycho, who had walked around the little group and was looking over her shoulder. "I thought you said you didn't know her."

Tycho's jaw dropped. "I—that's—we—" he broke off, giving up.

"What Tycho is so aptly saying," Wes clarified, "is that you're crazy. They's Jesina Dreis, not Keyra Nitram."

Mara rolled her eyes. Antilles had figured it out but, from the expressions the others were wearing, everyone else was being a little slow. You're both right."

All eyes turned to her. "You knew about this?" Wedge asked.

She shrugged. "How much is there that goes on that Karrde doesn't know about? Come on. He spends a lot of time in the Outer Rim territories. It's in his best interests to know the regional intelligence head – and her history."

Wedge frowned. He might have guessed. "Why didn't you say anything?"

She took a sip of the caf in her hand. "Whatever her reasons for staying hidden, they're her business, not mine. Until she makes me mad, anyway."

"So why did you say anything now?" Iella asked.

Mara rolled her eyes once again. She found that she did that a lot around these people. "Because the fact that Wedge asked you about her – and wasn't the least bit surprised by your response – makes it obvious that he already knows. Which means the secret is out."

Hobbie just shook his head. "You guys have succeeded in confusing the Sith out of me."

"Big surprise," Wes muttered.

Hobbie scowled at him. "And I suppose this all makes sense to you, right?"

"Oh, yeah. Jesina died over ten years ago, but she didn't really die, just became someone else, and now she works with her former best friends' girlfriends, doing the bidding of the man who lives to make us all miserable. Yeah, perfect sense," Wes retorted.

Wedge held up his hand. "Cool it. She'll explain everything later but," he turned to face his XO, "she wants to talk to you now. She's waiting in her office – it's where Riekkan's used to be." When Tycho hesitated, he nodded his head toward the doorway. "Go on."

---------------

Tycho approached the office that had once belonged to General Rieekan slowly. What was he supposed to say to a woman who had been his best friend – the one constant in his life – who had let him believe she was dead for more than a decade? He wasn't sure he even wanted to speak to her. Wedge had suggested that Jesina had an explanation, but he wasn't sure he wanted to hear it. He wasn't sure that any explanation would be enough.

He held his hand up to the door for a full minute before actually knocking. When he heard her voice, still familiar despite the number of years that had passed, he froze. He must have stood there longer than he realized, because she finally came to the door and opened it herself, looking to see who was there. The door slid open and he found himself staring into her deep green eyes. "Sith."

"Well, I didn't think I was that terrible," she joked, but didn't elicit so much as a smirk from Tycho.

There were two sides to Tycho Celchu. The side that people like Wedge saw was passionate, had a sense of humor, and was kind and caring, if somewhat closed off. To those who didn't know him well, the Alderaanian appeared ice-cold, stone-faced, and unfeeling. That was the personality he tended to fall back on when out of his element, in pain or under duress – as he was now. He stared at her silently, eyes narrow, face impassive.

She sighed. "Come in, Tycho." Without speaking, he followed her into the office and the door hissed closed behind them. "Have a seat, Tycho."

"I'd rather stand." His voice was just as cold as his expression. His eyes were as icy as the walls that surrounded them.

Jesina sat down on the edge of the desk. "Tycho, please let me explain."

"I don't know if I want to."

"Please, give me a chance." She'd grimaced at the pleading tone that had crept into her voice. He'd been there less than a minute and she was already reduced to begging.

"Why should I? More than ten years, Jesina! You were the only thing that kept me sane, and you let me believe for ten years that you were dead!" His voice rose with every word. "Give me one good reason why I should listen to you!" He was shouting now.

"I didn't know who I was!" she shouted back at him.

He stared at her, stunned by her outburst. "How? What?"

"I was on an Intelligence assignment, not a delivery. And I was ambushed by the _Inhibitor_. Your Captain had learned who I was and that I was the one who helped you escape. He ambushed me, thought he'd destroyed my ship, but I managed an emergency jump out. I hit my head and lost my memory. I was broadcasting a false transponder and I didn't have any idea. I landed on Belsavis, found a place to stay, and was eventually found by Cracken, who'd been tracking me because I was working for him. He tried telling me who I was, but I couldn't remember. She set me up with a new idea and listed me as KIA. I didn't regain my memory until a few years ago." It was the condensed version of what she'd told Wedge, and she somehow managed to say it all in one breath.

He was still staring at her, trying to make sense of everything she'd just said. It had come out as a jumble of words, wrought with emotion. He knew her well enough, even after all these years, to hear the pain and guilt and frustration in her voice. But still, he couldn't bring himself to comfort her, to even step toward her. It was all he could do just to speak.

"Why didn't you come to us when you regained your memory?"

"Because you had a life by then, one that didn't include me. I didn't want to screw that up for you. I didn't want to mess with your mind by coming back from the dead after 6 years or so."

"One that didn't include you?" he exclaimed. "Did you just say that? My life will include you until the day I die, whether or not you're right there with me." He turned away for a moment, and then turned back. "Do you have any idea what I went through when Rieekan told Wedge and I that you were dead?"

"Yes, I do. And when I had the choice of telling you, of coming back to life – and then possibly dying on you again, since Intelligence work is hardly the safest in the galaxy – I had to make the hardest decision I've ever made in my life. I chose to stay dead, and I've regretted it every day since, but I'm still convinced that I made the right choice."

"Even now? Now that we know?"

Jesina hesitated. "If I'd known then that, somewhere down the line, we'd see each other like this, I might have chosen differently," she admitted. "But I made the right choice based on the information I had at the time. Hindsight always gives you perfect vision."

He shook his head. He didn't know what to say to her, so he didn't say anything. This was a lot to take in, and he needed time to think, and she could tell. "Tycho, I'm not asking you to forgive me, and I'm not asking you to understand. All I ask is that you respect that I was put in a terrible position, and I made the best choice I could."

He nodded, and, without speaking, turned to go. The door had already slid open by the time he turned back. "I'll talk to you later," he said softly, and left without waiting for a response.

She watched him leave, regretting not stopping him, regretting letting Cracken hide her away all those years ago, and regretting coming back now.

---------------

Wedge looked up as Tycho entered his office. The Alderaanian perched on one of the several crates of basic supplies scattered around the small room. His face was pale, and he looked tired. "Where is everyone?"

"Wes is taking Corran, Ooryl, and Gavin around the base. Inyri is talking to Hobbie – he took one look at the snow speeders and froze up. She practically dragged him away."

"Inyri and Hobbie, huh?"

Wedge shook his head. "I don't think anything's going on. I think they're getting to be friends, is all." He paused. "How'd it go?"

He exhaled hard. "I don't know." Raking a hand through his hair, he focused on his boots. "I feel like I should be mad at her, but I can't really blame her."

"Yeah. That's what I was thinking when I left. But I can't say I wouldn't have made the same decision in her place. I can't say I would have, but I can't say for sure that I'd have done anything differently."

Tycho nodded. "I think I'm still in shock, too. I don't know if any of it – her being alive, her explanation – has really sunk it yet."

"Give it time." Wedge exhaled, and then changed the subject. "We need to actually get down to business. Why don't you get everyone together for a quick briefing, huh? Say, about," he glanced at his chrono, "half an hour?"


	6. Briefing

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 6: Briefing

---------------

When Wedge walked into the briefing room where Tycho had assembled the Rogues, he was surprised to see that they were all sitting quietly. There was none of the animated conversation that usually characterized squadron briefings, and he wondered why.

A slight motion caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He looked and saw Tycho nod to him, and then followed the Aleraanian's gaze to the side of the room. Wes was next to Hobbie, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. He had fixed someone with a deadly glare. Wedge didn't have to look to know who.

But he did look just the same, and saw Jesina – Keyra, he corrected himself – standing in the back of the room. She was talking to Iella, but _her_ eyes were fixed on Tycho. Wedge sighed. This was going to be so much fun.

"All right, I'll make this quick." He waited until everyone was looking in his direction to continue. Everyone but Wes, at least, who was still glaring at Keyra. He made a mental note to see if Tycho knew what that was all about. He couldn't see Wes being angrier with her than he and Tycho were. "First, I want to introduce the Regional Intelligence Director and acting Base Commander, Colonel Keyra Nitram." He motioned to the back and she took a step forward, raised her hand slightly, and stepped back. "She's been with the Alliance since Yavin, and was with us on Hoth."

"Now, as you've probably figured out by now, we don't have a whole lot to do here, unless things come to a head. I'm putting us on modified alert until and unless we get word that something's happening. Comlinks on and with you at all times. You don't leave the base without letting Tycho or I know where you're going; you don't leave the base alone, and, for the next week, you don't leave the base without being accompanied by myself, Tycho, Janson or Hobbie. The restrictions on leaving the base are more because this is Hoth than because of any alert status. This isn't the most inhospitable planet in the galaxy, but it's close. The average temperature during the day is thirty below. There are predators outside the base that blend in with the snow; trust me when I say I've seen a victim after an attack and you don't want to find yourself in that position. Also, no one leaves after the shield doors close. And, on another note, no unapproved transmissions off the planet. We're not supposed to be here, and we don't want anyone picking up on the fact that we are here."

He paused. Sadly, this next part needed to be said. That was to be expected from pilots, though. "As for drinking, I'm not going to say you have to freeze to death out her on the back side of nowhere and never have a drink – especially considering we went through more than our share of Whyren's here the first time around. Plus, it's a good way to keep warm while still keeping the walls intact," he said with a grin, and waited until the snickering died down. But I do expect it to be kept to a minimum." He glanced surreptitiously at Hobbie.

Now the chatter started and Wedge sighed, tempted to just walk out and see how long it took them to notice that he was no longer there. He had almost decided to try that tack when Tycho, who'd been standing behind him and to his left, spoke. "Just a few more minutes, please." There was a strange, strained quality to his voice, and Wedge realized that the Keyra issue was taking a greater toll on the other man than he'd thought.

Wedge took over the briefing again. "Tycho's going to come up with a patrol roster. Since we're the only squadron here, we're going to do patrols by flights. We're going to rely primarily on our fighters, since the snow speeders are two-person craft – pilot and gunner," he clarified for those who had never used the vehicles before. "We'll do one in the morning, one in the evening, unless something gives us reason to step them up."

"I actually already have it worked out," Tycho said. "One flight would take first patrol except for the fact that Wedge and I have some work to do, so Two flight has it tonight at 1900 hours. Three flight is tomorrow at 0800 and One flight is tomorrow at 1900. We'll keep cycling through like that, at least for now, and see how it goes. I'll post the roster outside my office." He had, as had Wedge, been assigned a windowless, crate-filled room in which to work. "And, I've transmitted to your datapads a layout of the base with room assignments, etcetera. Stay in the portion of the base that's been rebuilt. The rest of it's a disaster."

---------------

Corran poked his head in Wedge's open door. "You busy?"

"Not overly, no. I'm just plotting ways I can contribute to Cracken's imminent downfall." He pushed aside his datapad. "What did you need?"

"The NRI agent," Corran began, "Keyra Nitram?"

"What about her?"

"She seems very familiar to me."

"I'm not surprised. She worked fro Booster until about thirteen years ago. Mirax used to know her, but by a different name."

Corran frowned, but seemed to sense that Wedge wasn't going to volunteer any more information. "All right, thanks." He turned to go and was almost out the door when Wedge called him back. "Yeah?"

"Keyra Nitram was created by General Cracken and Alliance Intelligence. You won't find much of anything by looking there. You'd do better to start with Booster's known associates. And no, you can't contact Mirax."

Corran grinned. "Thanks."

Wedge sighed as Corran left. He'd been flying with these people for too many years. He'd even gotten to the point where he could stay one step ahead of the kid – kid? – from CorSec. Oh, how Booster would love to hear that.

He pulled his datapad back and called up the report he'd been reviewing, on activity in the Hoth System. He'd just found his place when he was interrupted again, this time by Iella. "How you doing?"

"I'm all right." He pushed the datapad aside again and shook his head. "Remember how I said to keep the drinking to a minimum?" She nodded. "Well, I'm thinking about starting my own betting pool on who gets drunk first. I'd lay even odds on me, Tycho, and Hobbs."

"Hobbie? Why?"

"It's Hoth," he said. "The whole thing. He froze up when he saw the speeders."

"That doesn't sound good."

"It's not." He shook his head. "I don't understand it. He's had more problems, more crashes, than any of us, and he's never reacted like this before."

"You want my opinion?" she asked. He nodded. "Look at yourself. You hate going out into vacuum." Wedge had spent a good amount of time in hard vacuum immediately after Endor nearly losing his hand – and his life – trying to prevent an explosion.

"I know. But I don't react as badly as he is."

"But didn't you tell me that it was months – and a number of exposures to vacuum – before you could handle it without starting to panic?"

He nodded grudgingly. "That's true."

She patted his hand. "Give him time. He just got here. He hasn't had to face this in the – what, ten years? – since it happened. He'll be all right."


	7. Cover Up

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 7: Cover Up

---------------

Inyri, Corran and Gavin were walking with Wes, Hobbie, Myn Donos and Teril Seylien as they headed to the hangar for patrol. Inyri glanced outside. "I can't get over how everything is such pure white." She glanced back at the pilots in their orange New Republic flight suits and laughed. "You guys will certainly stand out." She paused, seeing a strange look on Hobbie's face. He was looking in the same direction she had been, but he didn't seem to actually be looking AT anything. "Hobbie?" she asked, touching his arm. His breathing was shallow, and he didn't appear to notice her. "Hobbie?" she asked again. Getting no response, she called to Wes. "Janson!"

---------------

Hobbie stared out at the snow. He could see the walkers coming at them as if it was happening now rather than a decade ago. He heard Luke's voice saying that he'd lost his gunner, and telling Wedge to take the shot. He heard Janson's voice, and Luke's shout as he went down. He heard more comm chatter, bits and pieces from the base that slipped through as the Imperials entered.

He heard people talking around him, thought he heard his name once or twice, but none of it seemed to register. He saw again the walkers and the speeders, saw the hit that Luke took that cost Dack his life, saw Luke go down, heard Luke yell his name...

Everything came to him in flashes. No actual scenes played out in his mind. Sentences were cut off, his mind skipping on to something else before the memory came to an end. He could almost feel the hands on his arms pulling him out of the downed speeder. But he hadn't been awake to feel that the first time around...

---------------

Wes, who'd started to walk on toward his fighter, stopped when he heard the urgency in her voice. "What—" he turned back and saw the others clustered around the Raltiirian. "What happened?"

"I don't know. He looked outside, and went practically catatonic."

Corran's eyes were closed and his hand was on Hobbie's shoulder. He opened his eyes and glanced at Wes. "I can sense fear, but nothing solid."

Wes gently moved Teril out of the way. Hobbie had done this earlier, but he hadn't seemed to be this bad. He faced Hobbie, placing his hands on his friend's shoulders. He shook him lightly, then more firmly. "Hobbs, come on. Snap out of it."

After a moment, Hobbie slowly blinked and seemed to focus on Wes' face. "I...what happened?"

"You pretty much blacked out standing up. You all right?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. I just, I was remembering is all. Kind of hit me all of a sudden. I'm all right. Let's go." He shifted his helmet to his other hand and started to walk, anxious to forget the episode, but stopped when Inyri grabbed him. He turned back to her, frowning.

"The hell you're fine!" she exclaimed, exasperated. "You aren't, and you're not flying like this."

"Inyri, I am fine. It's just strange being back."

She scowled. Sure he was. He'd be fine until he froze up again and went through a repeat of his last stay on Hoth. "Looking out at the snow made you freeze. How do you know the same thing won't happen once you're in the air?"

He shivered involuntarily. He was probably thinking the same thing she just had been. _Good_, she thought, as he said, "It won't."

"Hobbs, I think she's right. Why don't you sit this one out?" Wes suggested.

"And give Wedge and Tycho one more thing to worry about? No thanks." The last thing he wanted was for them to be watching him constantly. As it was, he'd caught the look Wedge had shot him during the briefing, when he'd told them all not to get drunk.

Donos nudged Wes and something passed, unsaid, between them. "They don't have to know," he said.

Janson nodded and pointed at Gavin and Corran. "One of you two can fly for him, and the other can talk to the rest of the Rogues about keeping Wedge and Tycho away from the hangar, and away from the command station."

"I don't know..." Gavin said slowly. He didn't like the sound of this.

Donos shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Gavin. We did it in the Wraiths. At least, the Wraiths did it for me." He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. "I was having a few problems, and they hid it from Wedge and Janson. And Wedge and Janson hid from them that they knew about it, though they kept the secret for a while."

Hobbie shook his head vehemently. "No. I don't need anyone covering for me." Wedge would give them so much hell if he found out.

"Yes, you do," Inyri said, sighing. "Come on, Hobbie. You can't fly like this. Not only is it dangerous for you, but it's dangerous to Wes, Donos and Teril too."

"I'm fine!" he exclaimed. "I was just remembering what happened. You can't tell me that you haven't been thinking about it." Even through the pleading look his friend shot him, Janson could see that he was starting to get angry, and decided he needed to make a decision.

"Yes, I've thought about it. And I guarantee Wedge and Tycho have too, and Je—Keyra. But none of us has reacted like you have. I'm not saying you don't have a good reason to be freaked out, but still, you need to calm down before you get in a cockpit. You're going back to your quarters with Inyri, or I go to Wedge and Tycho right now." He didn't want to have this discussion in front of the others – namely Teril and, to a lesser extent, Donos and Corran, but he didn't have much choice. He was comforted slightly when he saw out of the corner of his eye that Teril had backed away from the group slightly, sensing that this was somewhat of an internal conflict that she wasn't a part of. Corran and Donos were, however, watching closely.

"You can't order me around," Hobbie countered angrily.

"No, but I can go to Wedge and Tycho," he said again, "and they can order you around. Take your pick." He knew he and Hobbie would have it out over this later, but he didn't care. Inyri was right. Something was seriously, and letting him fly before they figured out how to deal with it wasn't a good idea.

The Raltiirian stared at his best friend for a moment, before turning on his heel and stalking out of the hangar. Wes nodded at Inyri. "Go after him, will you? We've got to get out there or Wedge and Tycho are going to know something's wrong."

---------------

Inyri slunk guiltily away from Hobbie's room. He'd been so agitated, pacing back and forth and venting about how angry he was at Janson – one time going so far as to put his fist into the wall – that she'd left briefly, coming back with a bottle of water that she'd spiked with a sedative with a little help from Gavin. She'd commed him and asked him to raid the medical kit in the hangar for her. After that, he'd gone to recruit Ooryl to help him occupy – distract, more like – Wedge and Tycho.

Now she was headed for the base commander's office. Wes had spoken about her with some disdain, but he'd said that they used to be friends. She was really worried about Hobbie, and didn't think that hiding whatever was going on – and she wasn't sure what, exactly, was going on – was going to be helpful. She knew Hobbie didn't want them to go to Wedge and Tycho, but she thought this other woman might be able to help.

The office door was open when Inyri approached. She knocked lightly. "Colonel Nitram?"

Keyra looked up. "What can I do for you, Captain?" She deliberately kept her tone aloof.

"I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment. I think there's something wrong with one of the pilots in our squadron."

She studied Inyri as she thought about her response. She didn't know much about Forge, but she liked what she did know. The girl had grown up on Kessel, run with a crowd of Black Sun associates, and killed their leader – her lover. And she had, from what her record said, no qualms about going toe to toe with the seasoned Rogues – namely one Wes Janson. She doubted Inyri would have come to her rather than Wedge or Tycho without a damn good reason. "A concern over one of your squadron mates is best discussed with your commanding officers, Captain."

"I know it is, ma'am, but we don't want them to know."

Keyra frowned. Wedge's squadron had a reputation for being unconventional. But that didn't usually include going so far as to conceal matters of concern from the command staff – partly because Wedge didn't seem the type of CO who would make his subordinates feel as if they couldn't come to him with problems. "Why did you come to me?"

"Because even though Major Janson seems to dislike you, he said that the five of you used to be friends. I thought you might be willing to help us."

So, chances were, this involved Hobbie and Janson. If she had to put her credits on one of the two, she'd guess Janson was the problem. "What makes you think that I wont go to your commanding officers?"

"I'm hoping?" Inyri asked more than answered.

Keyra sighed. The young woman was clearly worried about something. Better to have someone know what was going on than leave it to the squadron to hide it. "All right. What's the problem? Or, rather, who?"

"Major Klivian. He...he froze up just by looking at the speeders earlier, and then he couldn't take his patrol. He had some kind of, well, I wouldn't call it a panic attack, but..." she trailed off. Keyra nodded at her sympathetically. "I took him back to his quarters and one of the other pilots took his place."

"Who knows about this?"

"Major Janson, Commander Horn, Captains Darklighter and Donos. Oh, and Captain Qrygg. And Flight Officer Seylien."

"So, just about everyone."

"Uh, yeah. Pretty much."

"How's he doing now?"

"Unconscious," Inyri replied, her face reddening.

"What?" Keyra exclaimed, her voice rising.

"I, um, I sort of drugged him."

Keyra buried her face in her hands. She didn't know whether to be shocked or amused. Amusement won out, though she smothered her grin. "You drugged a superior officer? You do realize that serious disciplinary action could be taken against you?"

Inyri nodded. "Yes, but after he nearly broke his hand when he punched the wall, I didn't much care."

"Hobbie did that?" With her incredulity, her intentional aloofness went out the window. Yes, they'd been out of touch for a long time, but she'd kept track of them over the years – over the years since she'd regained her memory, anyway. And they were, personality-wise more or less the same men they'd been. And displays of physical violence had never been in Hobbie's character.

Inyri nodded. She told Keyra about the argument in the hangar and about his agitation. "We were worried that someone would get hurt, but he was really angry at all of us. And he really doesn't want General Antilles and Colonel Celchu to know. He says that they have enough to worry about."

Keyra sighed. Had someone else come to her – with the exception of Wedge, Tycho or Janson – she'd not have dismissed their concern, but wouldn't have weighted it much. She'd learned long ago to trust her instincts about people, and her instincts were telling her that Inyri Forge was not someone give to frivolity or exaggeration. "All right. I'll see what I can do – as long as you understand that, if I think there's a serious problem, I'm obliged to go to General Antilles."

"I do." Inyri looked anxious. "Do you think something is really wrong?"

She thought for a moment, and then shook her head. "No. I think he went through a lot here and doesn't quite know how to deal with it now that he's being forced to face it head on. True, Hobbie's acting out of character, but everyone has rough days. And keep in mind that he's hardly used to being coddled, so it's not surprising that he's reacting badly to your interference." Inyri opened her mouth, probably to argue that they'd had no choice. "I'm not saying that you didn't do the right thing. You did. I'm just saying, don't be surprised that he doesn't seem to appreciate it."

"You really think he's all right?"

Keyra again hid her smile. Yes, her assessment had been correct. Forge's worry for Hobbie was more than that of a pilot for a squadron mate. "I do. He'll be al right." She glanced at her chrono. "How much longer until he wakes up?"

Inyri followed her eyes. "About half an hour or so."


	8. We'll Deal With It

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 8: We'll Deal With It

---------------

Keyra was sitting in Hobbie's quarters when he woke up. In the dim light she saw him fumble for the light switch. He finally found it and flipped the lights on, blinking furiously against the sudden brightness. Then he saw her and jumped – quite comical form her standpoint, as he was only halfway to a sitting position and covered by a heavy blanket. "Sithspawn! Where did you come from?"

"Alderaan, or so they tell me," she quipped. He muttered a Corellian curse under his breath and she shook her head. "Spending too much time around Wedge, I see."

"Actually, you were the one who taught me that. Why are you here?"

She moved from the chair to the cot. "You've got a few people worried about you." Reaching out and gently taking his right hand, she noticed the bruising. "With good reason, I see. I think you might have broken this. I was told you almost broke it, but it looks like you did."

"I'm going to kill her."

"Quiet." She fixed him with a look to rival Janson's from earlier. He returned the glare, but fell silent. "Yes, it was Captain Forge who came to speak to me, in lieu of going to Wedge or Tycho. This was after she drugged you because she was afraid you'd hurt yourself."

His face actually turned blue as he sputtered. He finally got out the words, "She what?"

"You put your fist into a wall," Keyra said calmly. "I can't say I blame her; I also can't say even I would have had the guts to do that when I was younger."

"I'm fine."

So you apparently said, many times as a matter of fact."

"I am, Jes."

She elected not to correct him. She didn't much care what name she went by now. "No, you aren't. I don't think you're crazy, but I do think you aren't 'fine.'"

He got out of bed. "It's just hard being back, Jes. Every time I look outside, all I can think about is crashing. When we were walking into the hangar, Inyri looked outside and said something about how it was pure white, and how we'd stand out. I looked outside, and it was like I was there again, only watching it this time, and it scared the hell out of me." He stopped pacing for a moment. "I really am fine. It's just not easy being back." He looked at her, giving her the same pleading look he'd given Janson. "It can't have been easy for you."

"Not easy, but it wasn't nearly as bad for me. I wasn't here for the battle – obviously – and even when you think about just you, Janson, Wedge, and Tycho, you had it worse than any of them. You're supposed to have a tough time. But the worst thing you can do is not talk to anyone." She glanced at his right hand, which he was cradling in his left. "All right, that's the second worst thing. The worst is putting your hand into a wall."

She stood, walked over to him, and took his hand again. "Promise me you won't do this again? And promise me you won't get mad at the next person who tries to help? Namely one Inyri Forge?"

He didn't like the tone in her voice. "Forge? What about her?"

"Like I said, she's worried about you."

He shook his head. "Uh-uh. That's not what you meant."

She grinned at him, eliciting a smile, pained as it was. "I also think she really likes you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"Yes, really. I've seen people concerned about their squadron mates. And I've seen people concerned about friends. And this was neither."

Hobbie shook his head. "You're crazy."

"If you say so." She glanced at his hand. The bruising was even more pronounced than it had been. "Let's go get this taken care of. And you really should talk to Wedge. I'm pretty sure that that's broken, and even with bacta, you're not going to be able to fly for a few days."

He sighed. "I told them I didn't want them covering for me."

"They did the right thing. From what Forge said, you were in no shape to fly, and you'd have ended up in a lot more trouble if you had done your patrol. Now come on. We'll get you fixed up, and then I'll go with you to tell Wedge and Tycho."

----------------

"You have a few minutes, Wedge, Tycho?" Hobbie asked. It was late, and he was surprised to see both of them still in the office.

Wedge nodded as his friend came in with Keyra, and then frowned when he saw his bandaged hand. "What happened?"

"I, um, I broke it. That's what I came to tell you. I can't fly for a few days."

"Obviously. HOW did you break it?"

"I punched the wall," he mumbled, but Wedge heard, "unch a all."

"What?" Tycho asked, exchanging a puzzled look with Wedge. They both glanced at Keyra, who shook her head and nodded at Hobbie, plainly saying, "ask him."

"I punched the wall," Hobbie repeated, more clearly this time.

"Why?" Wedge asked concerned. That wasn't like him.

"I was angry at Wes and Inyri."

"Why?" It was Tycho this time.

Hobbie looked at Keyra for help, but she shook her head again. "I'm going to go." She might have been friendly with them once upon a time, and Hobbie seemed to be rather accepting of her sudden return. But this wasn't her place. "Good night." She patted him on the arm as she walked by him. "It's all right." Then she was gone, fully expecting a visit from any number of people tomorrow morning.

"What's going on, Hobbie?" Wedge asked. Tycho leaned against the wall, arms crossed.

"Corran took my place on patrol earlier."

"Why?" Wedge again.

"I...had a flashback in the hangar. Wes, Corran, Gavin, Inyri, Donos, and Seylien were there. They all didn't think I should fly, so Inyri dragged me back to my quarters and Corran flew for me. I was pretty angry, and put my hand into the wall. Then Inyri drugged me," he paused as his face turned a furious shade of red, "and went to Jesina."

"Keyra," Tycho corrected him.

Hobbie shot him a strange look. "Whatever. Anyway, that's what happened."

Wedge glanced at Tycho. "Why don't you go have a word with Major Janson, Commander Horn, and Captain Forge?" he suggested. Tycho nodded and left as Wedge turned back to Hobbie. "Sit down."

Hobbie sat. "Wedge, don't be too hard on them. They were only trying to help me."

"I won't be. But they need to understand something, and you do too. If there's a problem, we'll take care of it. But I need to know about it. I get the distinct feeling that I'm going to have enough to worry about before long that I actually know about without having to worry about problems that I don't know about."

"There's not a problem," Hobbie protested.

"If you say so, I'll take your word for it – for now. But no more cover-ups. Like I said, if there's a problem, we'll deal with it." He paused. "Feel like talking?"

----------------

Corran, Wes, and Inyri were together in Wes' quarters when Tycho knocked on the door. The look on Wes' face when he opened it said it all. He was in trouble, and he knew it. Looking past him into the room, he saw the other pilots. "Just the people I wanted to see."

Inyri scowled. "She told you?" Anyone who knew her – and probably those who didn't – could detect the betrayal in her voice.

"Not her. Hobbie, though it was probably with a little prodding from Keyra."

"Tycho—"

"Wait," he said firmly. "Me first, okay?" There was a definite edge to the words.

Wes sat down, resigned. "All right."

Tycho leaned against the closed door. "I understand what you tried to do, and I appreciate the effort. But Wedge – and I, for that matter – has enough to deal with without worrying about what he's not being told."

"Tycho—"

"Wait, Wes," Tycho repeated. "Now, what I don't understand is what you think you were protecting him from. You should know enough that, if there's a problem, Wedge will do what he has to to take care of it. But he has to know about it to take care of it."

"It was more that he didn't want anyone to know about than that we didn't," Inyri said softly.

"I understand that. But if you know that there's a problem, you need to take responsibility. Suppose that Hobbie was having a serious problem. Someone could get hurt or killed because of it."

"That's why we wouldn't let him fly today," Wes put in.

"I get what Tycho's saying," Corran said. "If something had happened today – if there'd been an attack of some kind – Wedge would have had Hobbie fly, and if he had another flashback, he – or someone else – could have gotten killed."

Tycho nodded, gratified that someone was understanding him. "No one's getting in trouble. I want to make that clear. I also want to make clear that this DOES NOT happen again. If there's a problem, there's a problem, and we'll deal with it, and no one hides it from Wedge and me again. Understood?"

----------------

Wedge looked up as Tycho entered the office only minutes after Hobbie had left. "How'd it go?"

"All right. Said it was because Hobbie didn't want us to know. And Inyri's not a little pissed at Keyra for coming to you."

"She didn't. She made Hobbie."

Tycho shrugged. "Either way. They'll get over it. What I don't understand is why anyone – Hobbie included – felt the need to hide it from us, protect him from us. Especially Janson, considering what happened with the Wraiths and Donos." Wedge had told him about Donos' breakdown and the Wraiths' handling of it.

"Instinct, maybe?" Wedge suggested. "A friend's in trouble – potentially serious trouble – and they do the first thing that comes to mind? And we ARE obligated to report it if there's a real problem."

"You don't think there is, though, do you?"

"No. We had a long conversation after you left. He said pretty much what Iella said to me earlier. Everything just hit him all at once, and he doesn't know how to deal with it yet. After a few days, I think he'll be all right. We'll keep an eye on him, though."

"Okay. Meeting with...Keyra in the morning?"

"Yeah. These reports – what I actually had the chance to look at, anyway – don't seem like much, so I can't figure out why we're here. I can't figure out why Intel's here in the first place, and I really don't know why anyone's worried about them. Unless there's something Keyra didn't give me, I wouldn't bet that she knows either."

"Want to give me some of that to look over?"

"Nah," Wedge said, waving a hand dismissively. "Like I said, there's not much here. Get out of here for the night. Get some rest."

Tycho wasn't about to argue. At least, not about him getting some rest. "May I suggest you do the same?"

"I may not listen, but you can suggest it all you want. Now go."

Tycho made it to the door before he turned around. "Is it weird to you to call her Keyra?"

Wedge nodded. "Yeah. But most people don't know her by any other name, so..." he trailed off and shrugged.

"Yeah...it's still strange, though." He headed out, tossing a "good night" over his shoulder.


	9. She's Still Her

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 9: She's Still...Her

---------------

"What am I missing?" Wedge asked Keyra, frustrated. He glanced at Tycho, and the expression on the other man's face said he was wondering the same thing. Iella didn't look any more confident.

Keyra shook her head. "Nothing. At least, not anything we haven't missed. The activity has been primarily in the asteroid belt, and looks like nothing more than a mining operation. But it isn't registered with any operation that the New Republic knows of, nor of anything that Karrde knows of – and that's what really put us on edge."

"Do you sense a problem there?" Tycho asked. "That we're more concerned about Karrde not knowing something than we are about NRI not knowing about it?"

"Karrde has contacts we can only dream of, unfortunately," Iella replied. "But getting back to the situation at hand, we have absolutely nothing to go on, and that worries me. That's actually why they wanted you out here. The fact that we can't get anything on them is disconcerting."

Keyra leaned back and sipped from the cup of caf that had become almost permanently attached to her hand since she'd been at Hoth. "I can say that I'm almost certain it's not linked to any organized Imperial activity. It may be Imperial in nature – in fact, it probably is – but probably a small, independent offshoot."

"So, what are we talking about here, as far as expectations? Should we continue with the patrol schedule Tycho decided on yesterday? Or should we step it up?"

"We have six headhunters here," Keyra said, "in addition to the x-wings I mentioned to you before. I'd suggest having one patrol a day – four or six, its up to you – head up to the asteroid belt and cruise around up there for a while, see if you find anything. Using x-wings would probably tip them off that we're in the system. A lot of smugglers use headhunters."

"Including Mara, and a lot of Karrde's other people," Iella added.

"All right." Wedge thought for a moment. "Patrols of six at, say, 1400 hours every day. And we'll keep our standing patrols."

"Hobbie can't fly though," Tycho pointed out.

"I can," Keyra said. "I'm probably the best you've got. And it'll be good practice."

"Good practice?" Tycho asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Wedge didn't tell you?" she asked, glancing at the Rogue CO.

Tycho followed her gaze. "No, he didn't."

She met his eyes evenly. "I'm leaving Intelligence, transferring into Starfighter Command."

Tycho blinked, but didn't say anything in response. Instead he said, "All right. I'll let everyone know about the change. Who do you want flying first?"

"Us up to six, so, Keyra. Seven to Twelve have it tomorrow."

"I'll let them know," he repeated, and left quickly, leaving an awkward silence behind him.

Iella broke it. "How long is Hobbie unable to fly?" She'd heard about his hand.

"Well, between the bone knitters and bacta, he'll be physically able," Wedge said. He'd talked to the pilot this morning, and it was still painful but not as bad as it had been.

Iella caught the qualifier. "_Physically _able? You don't think he's okay?"

"I don't know," Wedge said. "I _think _he's fine. But if it happened once, it could happen again. And I don't know how I feel about taking that risk."

"Wedge, you have to give him a chance," Keyra objected. "He needs to adjust to being here, and he's not going to do that if everyone protects him. If you want my advice, stick him in a simulator with a Hoth simulation as soon as the Too-OneBee certifies him fit to fly."

"That seems cruel," Iella protested.

"Look, I've seen pilots who've taken a bad crash – Hobbie's here was worse – and never gotten in a cockpit again. I've seen pilots caught in a cockpit fire but never even injured developed a pathological fear of fire – to the point that they're convinced it's going to happen again and never fly again. What's going on with Hobbie could very well develop into that if we don't do something about it."

"Still, the Battle of Hoth? It sounds like you're looking to render him completely catatonic."

It was entirely possible, and might be unavoidable. "She's right, though," Wedge said finally. "We need to know if there's going to be a problem the first time he gets in a fighter here. And the safest way to figure it out is in a sim. Plus, it might snap him out of it." He paused and thought for a moment. "I'll talk to Wes, see what he thinks. And then I'll talk to Hobbie. I won't force him, but I will make sure he knows what I think."

Keyra nodded and glanced at her chrono. "I've got a meeting with some of my people in about fifteen minutes. Are we done here?"

"One more thing," Wedge said. "What are we expecting? Are we thinking that they're going to leave us alone?"

"I think as soon as they realize that the New Republic has people here, they're going to want to get rid of us. How soon that is depends on us, and on them."

"All right. Thanks." She disappeared out the door, and Wedge turned to Iella. "Something isn't right here."

"You think?" She paused. "What time is it?"

"Almost nine hundred hours." Corran's flight would be back from patrol in another hour or so.

"I've got to go to. I asked Mara to hang around a couple of hours longer, and I want to talk to her before she takes off."

---------------

"She's coming over to Starfighter Command?" Tycho exploded. "And you didn't feel the need to tell me?"

"I—"

"You didn't think it was something I needed to know?" His voice was growing louder, if possible. "What's next? She's going to come into Rogue?"

"_Colonel_ Celchu!" Wedge bellowed over his friend's rant. He couldn't remember ever using Tycho's rank in that manner. "Attention!" The Rogue, despite his anger, snapped to attention, holding his salute though he was actually shaking. Wedge waited a moment before returning the salute. "At ease."

He sighed. He hated pulling rank on his friends, despite that he was their CO. But sometimes – like when they were bordering on out of control – it was necessary. "Calm down." Tycho remained stonily silent.

Wedge's voice remained high. "Between her being here plain and simple, Corran trying to find out who she is, Hobbie's problems, and our less-than-clear reason for being here, her future plans pretty much fell to the bottom of my list. Yes, she did tell me she was leaving NRI. And yes, while she didn't come right out and ask, she's looking to transfer into Rogue. And I told her I would have to talk to you, Janson, and Hobbie before I made any decision."

"You want her in the squadron," Tycho said quietly, in stark contrast to a moment before. He didn't have to ask. He could tell by the look on Wedge's face what he wanted.

"Yes, I do. She's extremely skilled as a pilot and as a general operative. Her contacts and experience would be invaluable. But I won't bring her in if it's going to cause problems with all of you."

"When were you going to tell me?"

"As soon as I got a chance. In case you hadn't noticed, it's kind of been one thing after another." He paused, glad Tycho had calmed down – calmed, but not relaxed. "Now that you know, what do you think?"

"I think Wes isn't going to go for it."

"Yeah, I meant to ask you about that. Where is that coming from?"

"I think that something was going on with them before she left. They were together a lot when we were at Hoth. I don't know if anything had happened there, but I'm pretty sure they were headed in that direction."

Wedge nodded. It made sense. "So Wes won't go for it. It looks like Hobbie will. What do _you _think?"

Tycho sighed and dropped into a chair opposite Wedge. "I don't know. I'm angry at her. I don't trust her. But she's still...her. I don't know."

"All right. Did you tell Janson she's flying as his wing?"

Tycho nodded. "If I had left right away, we might have had two pilots with broken hands. As it is, we almost did." He rubbed his hand lightly.

"He hit you?"

"No. Not really. I caught his hand when he went to punch the door."

"They need to stop doing that."

"Yes, they do."

"I don't see it happening though."

"Neither do I."

Wedge sighed, turning the conversation back to the matter at hand. "Well, he may not like it, but he'll deal with it."

"Just like with Narra, huh?" The Rogues first commander, Bennington Narra, when faced with Janson's intense animosity toward Tycho, had paired them together. Eventually, Janson had gotten over it – namely when he'd been given the choice to save Tycho's life or let him get blown out of space by one of his former squadron mates, and had chosen to save him.

"Exactly. It worked then. It'll have to work now. And maybe it'll help him to warm up to her."

"Maybe." Tycho hesitated. "I still don't know how I feel about this."

"Think about it. And let me know. If it's going to hurt the squadron, I won't do it."

"I know."


	10. Resignation

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 10: Resignation

---------------

Corran walked into Wedge's office on the afternoon of their second full day on Hoth. He was still wearing his flight suit and had his helmet tucked under one arm. "Well, whatever they're doing up there, they don't want anyone to know about it."

Wedge jerked his head up. "What?"

"We stumbled across a couple of uglies." Uglies were fighters – though calling them fighters was generally being kind – that were often used by pirates and smugglers. They were junkyard ships, made of whatever starfighter components could be found. X-wing wings, TIE bodies, etc. "One of them fired at us."

"Why didn't you call for assistance?" Wedge demanded.

Corran held up a hand. "First of all, there were only two, and they took off as soon as they shot at us and missed. Second, I didn't think it was worth giving us away. Third, even if I'd planned to, I couldn't. They jammed us."

Wedge frowned. "Real fighters don't usually have jamming equipment, never mind uglies."

"And even if they did, I can't see how the range could have extended as far as it did. We were halfway back to the planet before the jamming ended. There's something else out there."

"Terrific." Wedge glanced at the chrono. "We're going to have to step up patrols. Do me a favor and find Tycho, ask him to put together a roster for three 4-person patrols a day of the asteroid field. Different areas at different times each day, and I don't want the same people flying at the same times each day. And if he asks, tell him I'm talking to Keyra."

---------------

"What the hell is going on?" Wedge exclaimed, storming into Keyra's office.

She looked up at him, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I want to know what you haven't told me."

Keyra shook her head, maintaining the confused expression. "I don't understand. You've got everything I have."

"My pilots just got shot at and had their communications jammed."

"In the asteroid field?"

"No, in the mess," he said sarcastically. "Yes, in the asteroid field."

"How? What did they come across?"

"Uglies. Now you tell me how an ugly can jam communications from the asteroid field to half the distance back to Hoth."

"I…I don't see how they could. Even if they could create jamming equipment that small with such a range, the fighter wouldn't have enough power to maintain it long enough for your people to have realized it extended as far as it did."

"No kidding. What the hell else is out there?"

"Wedge, I don't know. You have everything I have," she said again. "Here." She held her datapad out to him. "Take it. See for yourself." She opened the top drawer and pulled out a stack of datacards, practically throwing them at him. "You have everything. I don't know anything else." She was starting to lose her temper.

"You'll forgive me if I don't quite trust you," Wedge shot back. "Intel and I have a pretty bad track record."

"Wedge, I'm the same person I used to be."

"You don't even use the same name!"

"But you're still my friends. You, Tycho, Janson and Hobbie. I would _never_ put you in danger. If I knew anything, I'd tell you."

"I want to talk to Cracken. Now."

"I'll do my best."

"You'll get me Cracken, now. Or I pack my people up, call in our backup, and get all of us the hell out of here. And you'll be on your own."

---------------

"General, if I'm here under false pretenses, I have all the authority I need to pull my people out," Wedge reminded him. "So either you tell me what I want to know, or your people fend for themselves against whatever you want them protected from."

"You'd leave Keyra?"

"Right now, most of my people aren't exactly fond of her, myself included. So yes, I have no qualms. She's survived this long in NRI."

"And Iella?"

"She's a big girl. She's more than capable of taking care of herself." It pained him to say it, but it was true. His responsibility was to his squadron, not to Intel – even if the NRI people were an old friend and his fiancé.

Cracken glared blaster bolts at him, but he knew he didn't have a choice. "We believe that a large asteroid – of which there are many in that field – is home to a force-user," he admitted wearily.

"A force-user? A Jedi?"

"Not a friendly one."

"That doesn't explain the jamming."

"We believe that a small contingent of Imperials is exploiting some force-adept for his skills."

"We believe, we believe," Wedge muttered. "I'm not sure I believe any of it." He looked over his shoulder at Keyra. "Did you know about this?"

Her arms were folded across her chest. "No, I didn't," she replied, eyes narrowed at her superior officer. "If you knew what was going on," she asked, "then why are we here?"

"Because we don't know where, exactly, they are, nor do we know who is behind it. We can say with relative certainty that this Force-user was on Sullust not long ago and was instrumental in the deaths of two Sullustan Senators."

"Have you told Luke Skywalker about this?"

"We have not."

Wedge scowled. A Jedi – Dark Jedi? Sith? – running around the galaxy and Cracken didn't tell the one being in the galaxy who _most_ needed to know. It figured. "Tell him. Because there's no way I'm having my people take on a force-adept without someone around who knows how to handle him."

"I'm not about to take orders from you, General."

"Then don't consider it an order. Consider it an ultimatum. You tell him, or we head home. My pilots just got shot at today. It could have been much worse, and I'm not about to let that happen."

"You have Commander Horn there."

"Yes, and Commander Horn has nowhere near the capabilities that Luke has. I want Luke here, now."

"I will do what I can. Master Skywalker is no longer at the beck and call of this government, and does have his own responsibilities."

"And one of those responsibilities is dealing with Force-related threats. I'm sure he'll be very interested. Antilles out." He threw a stylus at the comm screen as the image faded, and then turned to Keyra. "And you wonder why I didn't believe you." Then he walked out on her.

---------------

Keyra and Iella walked into the briefing room as Wedge was winding up. He'd just finished going over their new patrol schedule after telling them what little information he'd gotten from Cracken. As Wedge asked for questions, Keyra raised a hand. "I have something to say."

He frowned but nodded. "Go ahead."

"I just wanted to properly introduce myself. Many of you know me as Keyra Nitram. That is not my name, not really. My name is Jesina Dreis. I knew Colonel Celchu growing up, and I knew General Antilles when he was still smuggling for Booster Terrik. I've been with Intelligence since Rogue Squadron was originally formed. And I am officially resigning from Intelligence as of this point in time. Iella Wessiri is now acting Regional Intelligence Director."

Wedge knew his jaw hit the floor and he saw that Tycho, Wes and Hobbie were having the same reaction. He knew she'd planned on leaving Intel, but he hadn't expected her to do it like this. "Keyra," he began, but she stopped him.

"Jesina, Wedge. Please. I'd like to have my own name back."

He nodded. "Jesina, I'd like to talk to you." He glanced at his pilots. "Dismissed."

By unspoken agreement – but predictable just the same – Wes, Tycho, and Hobbie remained behind as everyone filed out. "What's going on, Jesina?" Wedge asked her.

"Today was it. That was all I could take. I'm supposed to be running the show here. I'm responsible for my people just the same as you're responsible for yours. And I can't protect them if I don't know what's going on. Like you said, you don't trust NRI. And neither do I, anymore."


	11. Cry

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this   
for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 11: Cry

---------------

Hobbie was more than happy to get the bandaging off his hand. He still had to keep it in a sling, and it hurt more without the bandage but the lack of irritation made the additional pain worth it. Plus, he'd been given a painkiller and had every intention of using it as soon as he made it back to his quarters.

As he turned the corner and his door came into view, he saw that Inyri was standing there. If the comments Jesina had made their first day here, that painkiller was going to have to wait a while. "Hey, Inyri."

She hesitated. "Hey. How are you?"

He shrugged. "It's getting better." He used his left hand to key open the door and she followed him inside. Sitting down on the bed, he looked at her. "Did you need something?"

"No…I just wanted to see how you were doing. It's been a few days and, well, you haven't really talked to me."

He sighed. "I'm not going to lie. I was pretty mad that you went to Jes about me. And that you drugged me to do it."

She shifted uncomfortably. "I know. I'm sorry, but I didn't know what to do. You were so upset, and it scared me."

"When did you start taking such an interest in how I feel?"

Inyri instantly went on the defensive. "Sorry, but when I find a friend of mine so drunk he can't stand up, I get concerned," she shot back, and turned to go.

Hobbie jumped to his feet and grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face him. "Oh no, we're not going to play this game. We're not going to do the whole 'I say something and Inyri takes it the wrong way on purpose.' No. I didn't yell at you. There was no reason for you to go off on me like that."

Inyri deflated. "I'm sorry, I just…"

"You just what?" he challenged her.

She dropped onto the cot, defeated. "I don't know."

Hobbie frowned. He was beginning to see what Jesina had been talk about. But how to deal with it?

"Inyri, are you all right?" He reached over and took her hand.

She yanked it back. "I'm fine. I need…I need to go."

Then she ran out of his quarters.

---------------

Hobbie set down his tray in the mess, sat down, took one look at his food and pushed the tray aside. Then he proceeded to hit his head on the table several times, not stopping until he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hobbs?"

He looked up to see Janson, still in his flightsuit, holding his helmet and looking concerned. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He rubbed his forehead. "You just get back from patrol?"

Janson nodded, sitting down next to him. "How long until you can fly again?" He nodded at his hand.

"Another couple of days."

"Good," the other man said emphatically, and Hobbie raised an eyebrow at him. "If I have to fly with her one more time I'm going to scream."

"She's not that bad," Hobbie protested.

Janson stared at him. "She's been dead for ten years, but she resurfaces working for Intel – which, incidentally, lied to get us back on this rock." He sighed. "I don't like flying with people I don't trust."

"You've done it before," Hobbie pointed out. "With Tycho."

"That was different."

"Yeah, it was worse. You thought Tycho was still an Imp. Jesina's not even Intel anymore. She resigned because Cracken lied to her, too. Not just us. And I really think she'd have told us if she knew."

"Since when are you the optimistic one?" Janson asked him.

"I'm not. I just think you should give her a chance. Have you even heard her side of the story?"

"I heard enough."

"From Wedge and Tycho?" When Wes nodded, he went on, "Well, then you know Wedge pretty much forgave her, and Tycho was too pissed off to talk. So between them both you might have heard the whole thing, but I wouldn't count on it. Go talk to her."

Wes' expression told Hobbie that that was the last thing he wanted to do. After a moment of silence, he changed the subject. "What's your problem?"

"Huh?"

"When I walked up you were trying to give yourself a concussion – and if you do, I'll kill you myself because that means I get stuck flying with her longer."

Hobbie thought for a minute. He could tell Wes, but that would only end in disaster. Inyri would kill them both and, if by some small chance she didn't, he'd probably end up wanting to kill Wes himself. "It's nothing."

---------------

"A word, Major?" Jesina asked from Wes' open doorway.

"Yes, Colonel?"

She came in and closed the door. "What's your problem with me?"

He looked at her. "If you don't know, it's not worth talking about it."

"I want to talk about it. Janson, what did I do to you that was so much worse than to Wedge and Tycho?"

"You left, Jes." The hard edge he'd had toward her since he'd first seen her was gone now. "I don't know what was going on then, but there was something. And you left. Left, died…whatever. You were gone."

"I had a job to do, and it turned out badly and I'm sorry. But it was my job, whatever the consequences."

"Yeah, your job. Which you didn't even tell me about!" he exclaimed.

"I couldn't. Wes, intel work then was different than it is now. It was much more dangerous, and much more secretive."

"Jesina, we talked about trying to get together, trying to have a relationship. And you couldn't tell me what you were doing?"

"No." She paused, struggling to find a way to explain it to him. "Wes, there were several times I was given assignments that were directly linked to what the Rogues were doing. If any of you had been captured, they would have tortured you to find out everything they could about what Intelligence was doing. You guys have great resistance training, but none of you have the capability to withstand what they'd put you through. If you knew who I was and were tortured for the information, you'd have told them. And that would have been fatal for me. That's why you guys weren't told that Iella was the agent on Adumar. And that's why all the times you've ended up working with Winter, you didn't know you would be until you actually got there and _had_ to work with her."

Wes turned away, staring at the wall. He needed time to think. He understood her explanation and it made sense, but that didn't make it any easier to figure out how he felt. Finally, he turned back. "I don't trust you, Jes. You died, and it took me a year to get over it. And now you're back, and I find out you lied to me Force knows how many times. I don't trust you. I can't. Give me some time and maybe I will again. But I can't right now."

He put a hand on her shoulder and for a moment she was soothed by the familiar touch. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had given her so much as an affectionate pat on the back. Then he walked out of his own quarters.

She watched him leave, sinking down onto his cot. And, for the first time in years, she let herself cry.


	12. Take a Chance

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 12: Take a Chance

---------------

Inyri was leaving her quarters when Hobbie approached. She kept her eyes fixed carefully on the floor, determined not to look at him. He wasn't surprised.

When he got close enough, he put his hand on the wall, arm stretched across her path. Because she'd suddenly found the floor so fascinating, she didn't see and walked into him. "Hobbie," she murmured, still studying the floor.

"Look at me, Inyri," he said softly.

Finally, she raised her head, trying valiantly to maintain the glare she'd pasted on her face. "Let me by, major. I'm due for patrol."

He shook his head. Then he put his free hand behind her head, effectively trapping her against the wall. Slowly, he brought his lips to hers. He waited until she was kissing back to pull away just as slowly. Then he moved his arm. "You can go."

---------------

Corran knocked on Wedge's open door again and Wedge inwardly groaned, feeling a sudden disturbing sense of déjà vu. "If you tell me you got shot at again," he began before he'd even looked up at the other Corellian, but Corran cut him off.

"I could sense him."

"What?" Wedge looked up at him, startled.

"I could sense him. And he could sense me. But it was strange."

"Strange how?"

"He seemed…confused. I got the sense that he realizes he's being used to harm people, but like it's just that."

"Corran, now I'm confused. It's just what?"

"I got the sense that he's being used. That, somehow, he's in a position where he doesn't have a choice, or something." He shook his head. "It doesn't make sense to me, either. I don't mind telling you I'll feel a lot better when Luke gets here." He hesitated. "He is getting here, right?"

"He'd better be," Wedge replied. "Let's put it that way." He paused as Tycho came in with Jesina right behind him, then said, "Corran, tell Tycho what you just told me. I need to talk to Jes." He got up from behind the desk and left the office, and she followed.

"Have you transmitted your resignation to Coruscant?"

"Yes. I did it right after I told all of you."

"Then you're technically a civilian. This isn't the Alliance anymore. We have restrictions as far as how involved civilians can be. And they can't use military-issue vehicles. I'll bend the rules enough to keep you flying until Hobbie is cleared again. But after that, unless you get accepted into Starfighter Command, you're out."

"That's fine."

"Jes, are you sure about this?"

"It's a little late for that, Wedge."

"Jesina, be serious."

"Wedge, even when the Alliance was all I knew – after I'd lost my memory? – I never felt like it was all I had. The New Republic is your life, just as the Alliance was before. But it isn't like that for me. I can exist outside of it. And, if necessary, I will."

He decided to change the subject slightly. "Are you going to try to get into Starfighter Command?"

She thought back to her conversation with Wes and wondered if there was any reason to try. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "I know Wes doesn't trust me, and Tycho doesn't really either. And I know you don't, not completely. I think Hobbie's the only one does." She shrugged. "Is there a reason I should try for Starfighter Command?"

Janson again. He found it interesting that he was the first person she'd mentioned, as opposed to Tycho, or even himself. He'd made about a hundred mental notes so far to find out more about it but hadn't yet. He made it a hundred and one and pushed it aside for a moment. "You could have your own command," Wedge pointed out.

"I don't want my own command. I feel the same way about command that Janson and Hobbie do. I don't want my own command. I've been fighting with bureaucracy for the last two years, commanding every agent for three sectors. I'm done with it. I want something new."

He nodded. "All right. Transmit your application to Starfighter Command, Colonel. That's an order."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Isn't that a little presumptive, General?"

"Not at all." He smiled. "Cracken owes me. Put your application through. It'll be accepted."

She smiled and turned to go. At that point, he decided to erase all of those mental notes. "Jes?"

She turned back. "Yeah?"

"What's going on with you and Janson?"

"You should have asked that ten years ago," she murmured. Then she shook her head. "Nothing."

---------------

After watching her go, Wedge headed back into his office. "Corran, you said he could sense you?"

Corran nodded. "Yeah. But when he did, I didn't get any hostility from him. More like he was trying to communicate with me, maybe even trying to warn me." He shook his head. "I don't know, though. Like I said, I'll feel a lot better when Luke gets here."

"I think that goes for all of us," Tych murmured. He glanced at Wedge and nodded at the door. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine. Do me a favor, though? See if you can get her to talk about whatever the problem with her and Wes is? I promised her I'd make sure they transfer her into Starfighter Command, and she'll probably end up in Rogue. If there's a potential problem, I want to know about it."

Tycho frowned but nodded. "All right."

"What do you want us to do about the asteroid belt?" Corran asked, bringing the conversation back to the subject at hand.

"I don't know what we can do, other than keep doing what we're doing. We can't increase patrols – no one will ever sleep. I don't know," he repeated.

"We could always go after them," Tycho spoke up.

Wedge and Corran stared at him. "And give away our position?"

"It's either that or sit here and wait for them to come after us," Tycho pointed out, "which is an idea I'm not particularly fond of."

Wedge chuckled. "Remember Hobbie on Adumar?" he asked Tycho.

"Hopping from foot to foot because he wanted _so_ badly to be able to do something – anything? Yeah, I remember," he answered.

Tycho went on. "This feels the same, to me. Only we don't have people challenging us to duels here. We just have someone shooting at us from the middle of an asteroid field. The longer we sit here with nothing happening, the more nervous I get. I think we need to make something happen. And see if we can't find out exactly what's going on here."

Corran nodded slowly but frowned. "I get it, but I don't like it." He sat down. "What do we do?"

"I want to start by mapping the asteroid belt – the largest at least – and projecting their movements. It's going to only be a rough estimate, but it'll be a place to start, at least. In the meantime, I want to outfit a freighter or shuttle with deep surface scanning equipment, in case they're holed up inside one of the big ones."

"If Jes has her ship here – even if it isn't the _Nightwind_ anymore – she probably already has that kind of equipment."

"Find out, huh?" He looked at Corran. "Try to come up with some theories about what's going on with this Force-user, all right?" When Corran nodded, Wedge said, "Now, get out of here."

---------------

Gavin walked into the hangar and stopped when he saw his wing mate perched on one of the wings of her x-wing. "What are you doing?"

"Meditating," Inyri replied dryly. Then she pushed off the edge and dropped to the floor, landing in a crouch. "Absolutely nothing," she told him, straightening.

"Inyri…."

"No. Really." She brushed her hair back from her face. "I was doing nothing. It was just the first place I could think of where people might not find me."

"Your fighter, I get. But…why on the wing?"

"I was thinking about jumping?" She said it like a question. Then she shrugged. "I don't know. Because."

"What's going on?" Gavin asked pointedly.

"Huh?" She looked up at him. "Nothing." She moved to duck around him, but he stopped her by putting his hand on her x-wing. When her chest bumped into his arm, she started and blinked a few times, her mind flashing back to the corridor outside her quarters.

Gavin saw the expression on her face change and frowned. "Inyri, what's going on?"

Shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot she admitted, "Hobbie kissed me."

Gavin arched an eyebrow. He and Inyri had gotten close after a few years of flying together. But he felt like he missed something here. "He kissed you? How, Inyri?" He could feel his protective instincts kick in. He couldn't imagine Hobbie pushing anyone into anything, but Inyri seemed bothered, and he'd taken it upon himself to kind of look after her since they'd become friends. He felt he owed her sister Lujayne that much. "Did he—?"

"What? Oh! No, he would never do something like that. Just…I…when he was having those problems when Wedge told us we were going to Hoth, I got to feeling kind of close to him. And I guess he noticed. I'm pretty sure he was trying to ask me – or something – yesterday, but I freaked out and took off from his quarters. And this morning, he stopped me on my way to patrol – the same way you did now, actually," she said, offering him a grin, and watched as he hurriedly removed his hand from the fighter, "and he kissed me."

"So, this is a good thing?" Gavin asked, unsure of how Inyri was perceiving the whole situation.

She sighed. "I don't know. He—he's a superior officer. I'm his subordinate."

"You just gave the same excuse two different ways. You know that, right?"

She sighed again. "Yes. I do."

"Inyri, if that's all you can come up with for why you shouldn't get involved with him, you really don't have anything. Look at the Wraiths – Loran dated his subordinate, and the XO – Tainer – married his." Gavin sat down on a toolbox and Inyri sat opposite him on the bottom rung of a ladder. "Do you trust him?" He knew that she's had difficulty trusting men since the ordeal with Zekka Thyne – despite the time that had passed – and was concerned that, because of that, she didn't want to let herself feel anything for Hobbie – or anyone, for that matter.

"I do trust him. I think." She paused. "I respect him, at least."

Exactly what he'd been worried about. "Inyri, I'm not going to tell you that if you and Hobbie got together everything would work out perfectly. But he would never try to hurt you." He bit his lip, not sure whether he should tell her what had just popped into his head. He decided to anyway, even though it might upset her. "I think Lujayne would tell you to take a chance."


	13. Possible

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

**A Note: **This chapter is dedicated to Mag on , who ranted about men and their over-protective tendencies. It popped into my head after her comments. So blame her. Not really. :) I assume full responsibility. Don't all kill me. Please?

---------------

Chapter 13: Possible

---------------

Hobbie stuck his head in the door to Wedge's office. "That damn droid says I'm cleared to fly."

Wedge arched an eyebrow at him. "That damn droid?" he repeated. "Getting on your nerves, eh?"

Hobbie came the rest of the way into the office and dropped into a chair. "You have no idea."

"In a few minutes you're probably going to wish you were still dealing with the Two-OneBee," Wedge warned him and watched as Hobbie's eyes narrowed. "Given the problems you had that led to that," he gestured toward Hobbie's hand, "I want you to run a few sims before we put you in a cockpit for real."

"Wedge, I'm fine," he protested. "It was just a…an adjustment thing. It was weird being back. I've been back for almost two weeks and I'm okay."

"Hobbie, I want to believe you. But on the off chance that you're wrong, this is the safest way to find out."

"Wedge," Hobbie tried again.

"Head to the sim room. I'll have Tycho set you up with the simulation I want you to run." Defeated, the Raltiirian nodded and left, looking none too pleased. Wedge sighed. He was going to be even less pleased after the sim run.

---------------

Inyri pulled her helmet off and climbed down from her cockpit. She was halfway to hangar entrance when she realized she'd left her gloves in the fighter. "Shavit," she muttered.

Gavin turned to look at her. "You all right?"

"Forgot my gloves in the cockpit."

"Go get them. I'll wait."

"No, go on and warm up. I think I can manage to climb up and down a ladder without a baby-sitter." She offered him a grin and headed back to her fighter as he nodded and left the hangar.

---------------

Inyri was about to turn the corner toward her quarters when Hobbie nearly plowed her over. His face was red and he looked ready to shoot someone. Tycho and Wedge were right behind him, both talking at the same time in a futile effort to calm him down. She grabbed Wedge's arm as he past her. "What happened?"

"He didn't react well to the sim we had him run," Wedge explained, looking after his friend.

She had a bad feeling about this. "What sim?"

"We had him run a sim based on the battle here."

"_How_ closely based on the battle?"

"Essentially recreated it. Started out the same, including the shield coming down and the base being breached."

"Are you crazy?" Inyri exclaimed, knowing full well that she was out of line. "You made him relive it?"

"It wasn't the same people or the exact events of the battle," Wedge defended himself.

"That doesn't matter. I guarantee you that that's what he was thinking of. He was in the cockpit, thinking _Luke is Rogue Leader, and his gunner is Dack, who is dead. And my gunner dies too._ What did you expect?"

Wedge was at a loss. He hadn't liked the sim run idea to begin with, but had seen it as the only way. But in all his reservations, he hadn't considered _that_ reaction. He glanced at Tycho, finally, but saw a stunned expression that he guessed was mirrored on his own face.

Inyri stood before her commanding officer, hands on her hips, waiting for the expected reprimand. When it didn't come, she took off down the corridor and banged on Hobbie's door until he let her in.

"I'm sorry," she said once the door was closed.

"You knew?" he exclaimed.

"No! I didn't. I just got into a screaming match with Wedge in the hall."

He continued to rant – most of the time she couldn't even understand what he was yelling. It wasn't overly directed at her, though he did occasionally throw accusations her way. She just stood there and took it, unwilling to leave him alone.

Outside, Wedge, Wes, Tycho, and Gavin stood, listening to the yelling and the occasional crash induced by Hobbie's temper. Finally, Inyri emerged. Her face was pale, hair disheveled and she looked like she'd been crying. Casting one glace in their direction, she turned the other way and walked off.

---------------

Wes looked up when Inyri walked into the mess, blinking rapidly when he saw the large bruise on her cheek. "Gavin," he said softly, nodding in her direction.

Gavin looked up, and looked back down quickly. "Where did that come from?"

Wes shook his head. "I don't knows. She didn't have it the last time I saw her."

"When was that?"

"Same time you did. Right after she and Hobbie had that fight." He paused. "Do you know what's going on with them?"

"That whole mother's instinct thing, I think," Gavin replied. "He's been having a rough time, so she wants to keep an eye on him and all that." He hesitated and looked suspiciously at Wes. "Why?"

"I just…it's…" he trailed off helplessly.

Gavin frowned. He didn't like where this conversation was heading, or what Wes seemed to be suggesting. "You don't think…?"

"I don't want to," Wes said slowly. He really didn't want to be thinking what he was thinking. He'd known Hobbie a long time and couldn't believe he'd do something like that. But he hadn't been himself lately. He'd been really angry when he'd been talking to Inyri, and she'd looked much the worse for wear when she'd come out. All the yelling and the crashes…. He stood up. "I'm going to go talk to Wedge and Tycho."

"I'll come with you."

---------------

"I don't believe this," Wedge muttered. "Are you kidding?"

"I don't want to believe it, either," Wes countered. "But they have this huge fight and then her cheek is black and blue. It makes sense."

"No, it doesn't. I can't imagine him doing that."

"Neither can I. But he hasn't been himself lately. You have to admit that."

"Yeah, but," Wedge looked at Tycho helplessly.

Tycho shook his head. "I don't like it, but Wes' argument does have its merits." He shrugged. "Talk to Inyri. See what she says, before you make up your mind about this. There might be a good explanation."

"Like what?" Gavin asked.

Tycho shook his head. "I can't think of anything. But it's possible."


	14. Tears

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 14: Tears

---------------

"You wanted to see me, sir," Inyri asked as she approached his door.

He looked up from fighting with the keypad. "Yes, come in. That is, provided this thing will work. I think it keeps freezing up." He slapped at and tried for the fourth time, and was finally rewarded when it slid open. "Have a seat, Inyri. I just want to wait for Tycho."

She frowned. She was in trouble, she knew it. Probably for telling them off in the hall over what they'd done to Hobbie. But she didn't care. They were in the wrong and they knew it. She'd seen it in their eyes. Besides. What punishment could they possibly come up with that was worse than being stuck on this ball of ice in the middle of nowhere?

Wedge looked her over. The bruise was obvious, covering half of the left side of her face. She'd done nothing to try to hide it, at all.

Just then, Tycho walked in, closing the door behind him. "Don't lock it," Wedge warned him. "It might not let us out."

Tycho shook his head and sighed. "If we got through one day without anything getting broken – people included – I think I'd fall over in shock," he muttered dryly.

Inyri shifted uncomfortably. If they were going to yell at her, she wished they'd just get it over with. She hadn't had a chance to talk to Hobbie about what had happened and desperately wanted to. "Sirs?" she asked tentatively. "Why am I here?"

"We wanted to ask you something," Wedge began, looking to Tycho for help. Neither of them had ever been in this position before, and Tycho was the more diplomatic of the two.

Tycho got the message. "What happened to your face, Inyri?"

She stared at him, suddenly knowing exactly where this conversation was headed. "Why don't you tell me what you think happened, sir?"

"Inyri," Wedge started but Tycho silenced him with a look.

"Did he?" Tycho asked. There was no point in dancing around the issue now. She clearly knew what they wanted to ask.

She stood, looking away, shaking her head. "Are you kidding?"

Wedge tried again. "Inyri…"

"No. Seriously, are you kidding me?"

"No. We aren't," Wedge said. "We hear him yelling at you in his quarters, we hear things breaking. And then half of your face is black and blue. Do you really think we have no reason to wonder?"

"Yes, I do think you have no reason to wonder. How can you even think he would do something like that?"

"Then how did it happen?"

"I fell. On the ladder, climbing down from my cockpit. After patrol, I started to leave and realized I forgot my gloves. I sent Gavin on ahead and went back. But the ladder had oil on it that I managed to miss the first time, but slipped on when I was coming back down the second time. I fell, and hit my cheek on the ladder. Ask the mechanic. He spent the next ten minutes going back and forth between apologizing and trying to get me to go to the med center."

Wedge and Tycho exchanged glances. Boy, had they made a mistake.

Inyri looked at them in disgust. "How could you even think that?"

"It was a logical conclusion."

"No. It wasn't. You've flown with him for ten years!"

"Inyri, we made a mistake," Tycho admitted. "But you have to look at it from our perspective. Hobbie broke his hand hitting a wall. He blew up at you in his quarters for no reason. He's been having flashbacks and has just generally not been himself. And when, after spending fifteen minutes in his quarters, during which time he broke any number of things, the next time anyone sees you, you look like someone's hit you…" he trailed off. "It follows."

She scowled. "Permission to leave, sir?"

"Go ahead."

---------------

Inyri sat on her cot, legs pulled up to her chest, thinking about what Wedge and Tycho had said and about what had happened in Hobbie's quarters. As angry as she was, she couldn't blame them entirely, especially considering what she hadn't told them.

---------------

"We need to talk," Inyri said to Hobbie.

He raised his eyes to meet hers, looking miserable. "I know."

She came inside and sat next to him on the cot, reaching out and taking his hand. But he pulled away and stood up. She bit her lip, hurt by the reaction. "Hobbie," she began.

"I'm sorry."

"It's all right."

"No, it isn't."

She sighed and thought back to earlier. She'd interrupted his rant to ask him to calm down, and he'd spun around, fist raised. He'd just barely pulled the punch in time, realizing at the last minute where he was and what was going on. He hadn't hit her, but he'd come damn close. After that they'd just stood there for a minute until she realized that he wasn't going to say another word to her and she'd left.

"Hobbie," she said slowly. "Talk to me?" He shook his head, angry with himself, and she stood to face him. "Damn it, Klivian, at least look at me. Or are you too busy feeling sorry for yourself?"

He spun around, eyes blazing. "Feeling sorry for myself?" he echoed. "How dare you?"

She fought the urge to take a step back when confronted with his anger for the second time that day. "I dare because, in case you've forgotten, I'm the one you took a swing at earlier," she retorted, glancing down at his clenched fists.

He followed her gaze, looking suddenly stricken. Slowly loosening his grip, he dropped into a chair and buried his face in his hands. "I don't believe that happened," he mumbled.

She sat back down. "Wedge and Tycho asked me if you hit me."

His eyes widened. "Because of…?" he gestured toward her face. When she nodded he looked away again and asked softly, as if he was afraid to know the answer, "What did you tell them?"

"The truth."

"Did you tell them I almost punched you?" he asked dryly.

She shook her head. "It's none of their business."

"They'd probably disagree."

She shrugged. "That's tough for them, then, isn't it?" Shaking her head she went on. "I can fight my own battles. I don't need to be taken care of or anything like that. And I'm not exactly pleased that they apparently don't think I can handle myself."

"Inyri, no offense, but I outweigh you, I'm physically stronger…." He trailed off. "If I wanted to hurt you, I probably could."

"Don't flatter yourself." The words were joking but the tone wasn't.

"I'm just saying…"

"I know."

They sat in silence for a while, Inyri staring at her hands and Hobbie staring at the mark on her cheek that could just as easily been from him as from the ladder she'd slipped on. "I've never hit a woman before. Sith, I've never hit anyone unless I had to."

"I know," she said again.

"What's wrong with me?" He'd asked the question out loud a couple times, and about a thousand times to himself.

Inyri shook her head, reaching for his hand, and was glad when he didn't pull away from her. "Nothing. You had every right to be angry at what they did to you. You just shouldn't have taken it out on me."

He nodded. He was still angry at Wedge and Tycho. But that wasn't an excuse. "Normally I wouldn't have."

She laughed bitterly. "These are hardly normal circumstances."

"True." He looked away, then looked back and swallowed hard. "Inyri, what's going on?"

She didn't try to hide her confusion. "What do you mean?"

With his free hand he gestured toward her, and then back at himself. "You and me. What's going on?"

Silence reigned. Slowly, she shook her head. "I don't know." She chewed her bottom lip for a second. "Hobbie, I'm not good at trusting people."

"And I'm sure today didn't help."

"It wasn't the best thing that could have happened," she admitted, "but it could have been worse." That was the truth. Having him come centimeters away from hitting her hadn't exactly endeared him to her, but he hadn't done it, and he was genuinely upset that he almost had. That went a long way. She couldn't imagine Zekka ever showing so much remorse for anything he'd put her through.

"I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "Don't be. It'll be all right. I'll get over it."

"But you shouldn't have to. I shouldn't have put you in a position where you need to get over anything."

"It'll be all right," she repeated.

He moved to sit next to her on the cot and, hesitantly, put an arm around he shoulder. She stiffened slightly, unaccustomed to close physical contact, but forced herself to relax against him. Despite everything that had happened earlier, and despite how much he'd frightened her – though she wouldn't admit that to anyone, him included – she felt safe with him now, which was something she hadn't felt in a long time.

She felt him brush his lips against her cheek, and felt a few tears on her cheek. As she brushed them away, it occurred to her that she wasn't sure if they were his or hers.


	15. Temporary Resolution

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 15: Temporary Resolution

---------------

Wedge scrubbed a hand over his face. "All right. I just got word from Cracken that Luke can't be here for a couple of weeks. So we're on our own, and it looks like Tycho's idea is the best option."

"What, exactly, is Tycho's idea?" Iella asked.

"That we go after them. I already had your survey crew map out the larger asteroids – the ones that aren't going to be obliterated just by being in the belt, and that could house a hiding place for…whatever they're doing out there," he finished, shrugging.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Thanks for letting me know," she muttered dryly.

He returned the expression. "You're welcome."

Iella rolled her eyes and looked at Jesina. The other woman rested her chin on the palm of her hand and shrugged her shoulders slightly. "Typical," she murmured.

"I know." Iella grinned ruefully.

Wedge cleared his throat. "Excuse me. Can we get back on track, and stop complaining about me?"

"If you want my opinion, I'm fine just complaining about you," Wes joked, but quieted when confronted with Wedge's glare. "But that's just me," he mumbled, studying the floor.

"Can I ask a question before we start?" Jesina asked, growing serious again. "Where's Hobbie? Why isn't he here?"

It was a valid point, given who _was _present – Wedge, Tycho, Jesina, Iella, Wes, and Corran. Wedge sighed. "Let's just say that I doubt that Hobbie would want anything to do with us right now." He glanced at Tycho, who nodded ruefully.

"Why?" Jesina asked slowly.

Wedge told them about the sim run, Hobbie and Inyri's reactions, the fight in Hobbie's quarters, and their reaction to Inyri's injury.

Jesina returned her chin to her hand, shaking her head. "What a mess," she sighed. "You really screwed up, Wedge."

"I know. Trust me."

Iella frowned, but nodded in agreement. "Let's get back on track, huh?" she suggested. Not that she thought the situation with Hobbie wasn't worth paying attention to, but she could see in her husband's eyes how badly he felt.

"Good idea," Wes said, shifting uncomfortably. He felt even more to blame for the situation than Wedge did. After all, he'd been the one to assume the worst. And Hobbie was his best friend. He should have been the last one to think something like that.

"So how do we do this?" Jesina asked.

"We check out all of these larger asteroids, with deep surface scanners. If we pick up anything, I want to set people down on it."

Corran sighed. "Can't we, I don't know, infiltrate Corellia or something? Something easy?"

---------------

Iella and Jesina walked into the mess after nearly a four-hour planning session that had only ended because Wedge and Tycho were needed for their patrol. "Food!" Jesina exclaimed dramatically. "It does exist."

Iella snickered and squinted at the plate she picked up. "I'm not sure I want to know what this is."

"As long as Wedge didn't cook it, we'll probably survive," Jesina told her, picking up an identical dish. Then she held up a bottle of water triumphantly. "To wash it down so I don't taste it at all."

"Good idea." They picked up napkins and forks and glanced around for a table.

When Iella saw Hobbie, she nudged her companion and nodded in his direction. He looked more dour today than usual – which was telling. "Come on," she said. "Let's cheer him up, shall we?"

The two women set their lunch trays down on either side of his and sat down, surrounding him. He glanced from one to the other and groaned, and then buried his head in his hands. He didn't know what they had planned for him, but whatever it was couldn't be good.

"I can shoot him, you know," Iella offered.

"Huh?" He looked at her, not bothering for a second to attempt to conceal his confusion.

"Wedge," she explained. "He told me that he and Tycho accused you of hitting Inyri. I'm pretty sure that being the Regional Director here gives me the authority to shoot him if I deem it necessary." She looked to Jesina for confirmation.

"Yup, it does. And it certainly sounds necessary to me."

Hobbie shook his head. "No, it isn't."

Iella frowned at him. "Joking, Hobbie. You remember what that is, right? You are Janson's best friend, after all. Aren't you?"

"Yes. And I know you were joking. But I was being serious. Forget about it."

Iella leaned back slightly in her chair and looked quizzically at Jesina, who shrugged. Something seemed…off. "All right," she finally said, beginning to eat.

---------------

Hobbie headed to his quarters after lunch, only to find Jesina standing in front of the door, arms folded. "Spill," she said, her grim expression unwavering.

He frowned at her. "How did you get here?"

"I know some shortcuts. Spill."

His expression turned defensive for a moment but then he sighed, resigned. Shaking his head, he opened the door and stood back so she could enter. She sat down on the chair and he sat across from her.

"What?" he asked.

"What's going on?"

"Jes, please."

"No. I heard everything from Wedge, but I get the feeling there's more. What really happened, Hobbie? How did Inyri get hurt?" She folded her arms across her chest, not liking that she felt the need to be here now, asking him this. But she did feel the need. And she wasn't mad at herself for thinking it. She might be later, if she was wrong. But she didn't think she was. And, therefore, she was angry with him. "Did you hit her?"

"Yes. I mean, almost. I…" he trailed off and shook his head, standing and pacing for a minute, trying to clear his mind. "I almost hit her." He held his thumb and index finger about a centimeter apart. "I came this close. I was angry. I was yelling and I didn't even really know who I was yelling at. I was so mad at Wedge that it didn't even occur to me that he wasn't the one I was yelling at. And I turned around and took a swing at her and realized that it was her and I just barely stopped in time." His voice dropped as he sat back down. "And she just stood there."

Jesina realized that what was getting to him wasn't just that he'd nearly hit her as that she'd have let him.

He looked up at her, a strange expression on his face, and it occurred to her that he was looking for someone to let him have it. She was more than happy to oblige. "That's no excuse."

"You think I don't know that?" he exclaimed. He hid his face in his hands once again. Finally, he met her eyes. "She didn't tell Wedge."

"I know. He'd have said something if she had."

"I kind of wish she would."

"Guilty conscience?" she asked, though she really didn't need to. He just nodded, and she stood, walking over to the chair, standing behind him and resting her hands on his shoulders. Massaging lightly, she said, "You could always tell him."

"What do I say?" he asked, leaning into her hands. "Wedge, just thought I'd let you know I took a swing at Inyri. She just stood there – she was going to let me. And she doesn't care that it could happen again – for real this time."

"I don't think that's true," Jesina said, pausing in her ministrations. Then she resumed. "She probably just doesn't believe you actually would." She leaned forward and hugged him gently, her anger gone, though she felt no guilt over it. "And, honestly, neither do I."

"I wish I could be so sure."

"Hobbie, if you hadn't reacted so badly to that sim, I'd be concerned. And, if you want my opinion, Wedge is pretty lucky that he wasn't the one in your quarters with you. He'd probably be nursing a broken nose right now."

"And I'd probably have broken my hand again."

She smiled at him, though he couldn't see her face, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "That's the spirit."

"I don't think he really needs to know. Not right now, anyway. But do me a favor?"

He twisted around in the chair to look up at her. "What's that?"

"Next time you feel like taking a swing at someone, give me a call. It's been a while since I went hand to hand."

He grinned for the first time in a while. "Thanks, Jes."

"No problem." She headed for the door. Then she turned back. "Are you okay to fly? Honestly?"

He hesitated for a second and then nodded. "As long as I don't have to fly with dead men any more, I'll be okay."

"Good. You have patrol in an hour. Headhunters, asteroid belt." She ducked out the door, missing the pillow he tossed in her general direction.


	16. Reminiscent of Smuggler’s Run

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 16: Reminiscent of Smuggler's Run

---------------

Wedge had been waiting in the hangar for Two flight to come in. They'd done their first surveying run, accompanying Jesina's ship – still the _Nightwind_, though a far cry from what it had been the last time they'd seen it – through the asteroid field. He wanted to know if they'd found anything in the three that they'd scanned today. But there was something else he wanted to know, and it was a more pressing concern for him.

He fell into step beside Wes. "How did he do?" he asked softly.

Wes glanced surreptitiously at Hobbie and then back to his CO. "Fine. No hesitation, no distraction. No problems at all. Or, at least, nothing I could see. Of course, we weren't flying over snow either. Or in speeders."

"True," Wedge admitted. "But you started out that way," he pointed out. "No problems?"

Wes shook his head. "Nothing. I think he's going to be fine."

Wedge nodded, satisfied, and raised his voice back to a normal speaking level. "Find anything?"

"Maybe. Jes is downloading the data from the _Nightwind's_ systems to her datapad now."

Wedge was pleased to hear Wes refer to her that way. He'd been calling her by her full name – and, on occasion, her last name – the whole time they'd been here. Using her nickname was a sign that things might be edging closer to getting back to normal between the two of them. Normalcy was always a good thing. Especially considering that what was going on here was about as far from normal as you could get.

"I'm going to talk to Tycho," he replied. "Tell Jes to set herself up in the main briefing room. I want…get everyone there, all right?"

---------------

Wedge walked into the briefing room with Tycho a step behind him. And froze. There, at the front of the room next to the holoprojector, was the one…being…Wedge truly had no desire to see. Lieutenant Kettch.

He looked from the stuffed Ewok to the assembled pilots, focusing on each face in turn before moving on to the next. To their credit, each kept a straight face. As he looked them all over, he realized that there were two people conspicuously absent. Janson and Hobbie.

Who arrived a second later. "Uh, boss?" he heard Wes' voice from behind him. "Are you planning on running this meeting from the doorway? Or do you want to go inside?" When Wedge didn't move or respond, he asked, "Or, can we at least go in?"

Wedge stepped aside. "By all means," he said, motioning for them to go by.

Wes stepped inside and stopped short. Hobbie, right behind him, walked into the other man's back and stepped back out quickly. "Where the—?" Wes spun around to look at Wedge, who merely arched an eyebrow at him. "I didn't—" Wes started to say, but Wedge shook his head.

"Don't." He sighed heavily as laughter rippled through the room. He was glad that morale seemed to be slightly higher than it had been, though not a little sore that it was once again at his expense. He stopped before the table and looked at the stuffed creature.

"Well, Lieutenant," he finally said, "Welcome to Hoth. I might have expected to find you here." He picked up the Ewok doll and continued, "I'm sure Major Janson would enjoy showing you around, during the time he isn't assigned KP duty. Though I'm afraid that time will be few and far between."

He then strode over to Wes, now sitting in the back row in the seat nearest the door, and deposited Kettch into the pilot's lap. "Enjoy your stay." He walked back up to the front of the room as they all dissolved into laughter. Wes opened his mouth to protest but apparently thought better of it and kept silent. That was probably due, at least in part, to the look Wedge shot him when he reached the front.

"Now, Jesina, what do you have for us?"

She hit a few keys and an image of Hoth appeared over the holoprojector, complete with the asteroid belt, their primary object of interest. Another tap of a key and three of the larger asteroids became the focal point of the image. Wedge wondered absently if one of these three had been the rock that had hidden the _Millennium Falcon_ during Han and Leia's escape from Hoth so long ago.

"These are the three we scanned today. There are at least fifteen other possibilities, but we may not have to consider those. We came up empty on these two," she gestured to the largest of the three. "But we found something on this one."

"I've sent to your datapads the life-form readings we picked up. There's nothing big there, but there's something. Admittedly, it's something pretty small, but the readings are compatible with a small human settlement. The problem is, these asteroids have been known to be habitats for non-sentient life. We could just as easily have stumbled across something else."

"Like giant space worms?" Wes asked.

Wedge actually laughed now. He'd heard that story more than once from Leia and Han, and while he supposed it hadn't been funny at the time, it was amusing to think about now. Tycho chuckled too, as did Hobbie. But the others looked lost. Wedge waved a hand dismissively. "It's an inside joke." He would have to warn them about the possibility of encountering those creatures. But that could wait until later. "Go on, Jesina."

She frowned at him but nodded. "There is something that leads me to believe we've found what we're looking for." She turned to Wedge. "Take a look at the composition readings we came away with."

He raised an eyebrow, but looked down at the file she'd transmitted to him. Scrolling through until he reached the section she'd called his attention too, he let out a low whistle. "Yeah, I'd say that there's something there." He looked up. "Corran, take a look."

The Corellian already had. "Looks pretty familiar," he said. His face told Wedge he knew what it meant, too.

Wes frowned at them. "Anyone want to fill us in?" Wedge noticed that Kettch was seated next to him on the floor, leaning against the chair.

"Go ahead, Jes," Tycho said.

"If you look below that chart, you'll see similar readings for one of the asteroids in Smuggler's Run. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Run, it's a group of hollowed out asteroids that used to be controlled by the Hutts. Any number of crime lords have set up operations there, deep inside the asteroids. And, from the looks of, the same thing has been done here."

"Is there a possibility that we're dealing with smugglers here?" Corran asked.

"I doubt it," Wedge replied. "The Empire would have the same technology, so we have no reason to believe we are. Besides, if there was any chance it was just smugglers or pirates, Kaarde would know about it."

"What if he doesn't want to tell us?" Hobbie asked. He knew Wedge – and most of the others – relied on Karrde, but he still didn't trust the man.

"Mara would. Especially since we know there's a Force-user involved. Plus," Wedge shrugged, "Booster would probably know too. And if he knew, Mirax would. And she'd tell us. My credits are on the Empire."

"So what do we do now?" Inyri asked.

Wedge noted that the bruising had gone down, though it was still visible. He also noticed that Hobbie was studiously avoiding looking at her, though she kept glancing in his direction. For that matter, Hobbie was also avoiding looking at him. Or Wes, Tycho, and Gavin. Something was up.

"We need to land on the asteroid," Tycho said, frowning slightly at Wedge's apparent distraction.

"Who gets that job?" Wes asked.

Wedge exhaled. "That's what we need to figure out. This is, technically, NRI's show. We're just here in a support capacity. But this involves extraterrestrial activity, and I'm not planning on letting Iella send her people up there alone. No matter how long she argues with me." He shot Tycho a pained expression and the other man smiled.

"I can take any team Iella wants to send in the _Nightwind_," Jesina said. "And you could send up as many of your people as you want, Wedge, in the Z-95s or your own fighters. We have enough hard-vacuum suits for all of you. Cracken insisted we take them. I didn't know why, at the time, but I'm glad now."

"We can send everyone up," Tycho suggested. "And have six fly as air support and six land and go with the Intel team."

"All right," Wedge said after a moment, his stomach flip-flopping at the thought of going into hard vacuum. Iella's comments about his own fears seemed almost prophetic now. "I need to talk to Iella before I make any plans. But why don't we make a few practice runs in hard vacuum? And then we can work with whoever Iella decides to send." He paused. "Dismissed."

Jesina approached Wedge and Tycho after the rest of the squadron had left – Wes taking Kettch with him – and handed him her datapad. "I got a response to my application to Starfighter Command."


	17. Setting Out

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 17: Setting Out

---------------

"Well?" Wedge asked expectantly. "What's the verdict?"

She grinned. "If you want me, you've got me." She was practically bouncing in place. Tycho shook his head, smiling.

Wedge laughed and gave her a hug. "Congratulations. And just in time. There was no way I was letting you come with us if you were back to civilian status."

"And just how would you have proposed to stop me?" she asked, falling into step between the two as they left the briefing room.

Tycho nudged Wedge and laughed. "She's got a point. You always were wrapped around her little finger."

"I was?" Wedge retorted, eyebrow raised. "Might want to look in a mirror, there, Tych."

"Aw, be quiet. You both know you could never say no to me," she said with a smile. "Besides, I can fly just as well as you two, and I have my own transportation. You wouldn't have been able to stop me even if you had told me no."

---------------

Wes approached Wedge. "You weren't really serious about KP, were you?"

"Wes," Wedge replied tiredly, "I walk into the briefing room to be greeted by Lieutenant Kettch. I'm still worried about Hobbie, and there's definitely something going on with him and Inyri that I don't know about. He wouldn't look at any of us, in case you hadn't noticed."

"I noticed. But I figured it was just that he was still mad at us."

Wedge shook his head. "I don't think so. He wouldn't look at her, either, but she kept looking at him. Something's up. But that's not all. I have Cracken breathing down my neck, which is probably just going to get worse because Jesina's left Intel to come work for me. And then I walk into the briefing room to be greeted by Lieutenant Kettch," he repeated. "Tell me why I shouldn't be serious."

"Because it wasn't me," Wes said. "I didn't even bring Kettch with me." He paused. "Not that I don't wish I'd thought of it, but I didn't."

His CO sighed. Wes actually, for probably the first time ever, _did_ look innocent. And not that put-on innocence he usually developed when he was in trouble. "All right, Wes. You find out who it really was – with proof – and I'll let you off. Now go get ready. We leave in," he glanced at his chrono, "an hour and a half."

He watched Wes leave, images of Janson interrogating the rest of the squadron dancing through his head. Was he going to regret this? Probably, he decided, continuing on to his office.

---------------

Walking into the hangar, he looked around at the minor chaos. All his pilots were there, packing the gear Jesina had told them to bring into the fighters' storage compartments. Iella was directing her team as they loaded all the equipment they needed into the _Nightwind_. Jesina would be going up with them in the freighter, since Rogue was currently at full strength. Wedge hoped that she'd be a surplus pilot for a while, but he wouldn't bet on it. Rogue didn't have that kind of luck.

He headed over to where the Rogues were. "All right, everyone, listen up. The following are flying escort for _Nightwind_ and landing on the asteroid. Two, Five, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten." He wanted either himself or Tycho on the ground, and Tycho had offered, so Wedge had taken him up on it. Janson and Donos had been easy choices – their blaster skills would be of more use on the asteroid than in their fighters. Teril had been in the commandos before joining Starfighter Command. He'd chosen Corran to go down because he had significant experience with intrusion, and he'd selected Ooryl because his biology – the fact that he didn't need to breathe, for one – might make him useful, because they knew nothing about the conditions they were heading into.

The rest of us are air support. We'll be patrolling the vicinity unless we get word that we're needed. In case we do have to go to ground, we're all going to be wearing vacuum suits."

He shook his head at the chorus of groans. "I know it's not exactly going to be comfortable. But we don't have a choice. It'll be that much harder to try to put it on inside the cockpit. Now, three and four will fly together, as will eleven and twelve. Hobbie, you're with me." There were several reasons for that. And from the look on Hobbie's face, he knew it.

"Those of you on the ground, you follow orders from Iella and Jesina just as from Tycho." He doubted any of them would disobey either of the women, but he wanted to cover everything. "And, on that note, we have thirty minutes to launch and I want you to meet with Iella and Jesina first." Even though Jesina was technically a Rogue, now, she was acting the Intelligence part. Iella was still in charge, but she was more than willing to defer to Jesina right now.

---------------

"All right. Once we're on the ground, no comlinks," Jesina said. It was standard practice for her and all the more important now, since there was every chance they'd be jammed from the moment they hit the asteroid, if not sooner. "No one goes off alone. In pairs, yes, but not alone. We have _absolutely_ no idea what we're getting ourselves into, so I don't want anyone on their own."

"If we get jammed, how will we communicate with Wedge to let them know if we get into trouble?" Corran asked.

Iella held up a small black box. "When activated, this sends out energy waves that are picked up by a different type of receiver. Basically, it's the same thing as the deep scanning you people did."

"What will happen if we are separated – in pairs, of course – and are caught?" Ooryl asked.

"You do what you need to. We can't count on being able to communicate. You do what you can to stay alive until we can get to you," Jesina said softly. "We _will not_ leave anyone behind. You'll just need to sit tight until we find out where you are."

Iella looked over them. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, if you and Tycho tell us to do different things, who do we listen to?" Wes asked.

She gave him a sinister smile. "Me. Because I'm marrying your boss. And if I tell him to make your lives miserable, he will."

"But Tycho can make our lives miserable on his own," Donos pointed out. "He makes up duty rosters."

Tycho laughed. "But remember, women are so much more vindictive than men."

Iella glowered. "I can tell him to make your life miserable, too."

He held up a hand. "I take it back."

---------------

Iella spoke into her comm unit. "All right, Rogue Flight," she said. That was how they'd designated the air support team. "Hopefully, we won't see you again until we're back on Hoth."

"Good luck down there," Wedge's voice came back.

She heard him order the pilots who were staying with him to form up on him and watched as they put more distance between themselves and the Intel team. They weren't yet within the bounds of the asteroid belt, but they'd all agreed that the sooner they separated, the safer it would be.

The air support team would be following the patrol route they'd been using for the last few days, though in x-wings. They'd given up on any attempt to conceal the fact that they were New Republic personnel. Chances were that whoever they were about to go up against knew who they were anyway. And if they didn't yet, they likely would as soon as the _Nightwind_ and her escorts landed on the rock.

"Night Flight," she said, referring to their escorts, "form up behind us. And when we land, come down around us." She looked out and saw the nearest asteroids coming into view. "Are we crazy?" she asked Jesina.

"Let's see. We're flying into an asteroid belt, only to land on one of them. Going _inside_ said asteroid to find a dark Jedi – or whatever this guy is." She paused. "And you're marrying Wedge. I'd say yes."

Iella smirked. "Could be worse. I could be interested in Janson. Then I'd know I was crazy."


	18. Never Had a Chance

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 18: Never Had a Chance

---------------

Wedge led the Rogues on a weaving pattern through the outskirts of the asteroid belt. He hadn't communicated with the _Nightwind_ and her escorts since they'd split. He hoped they'd made it there all right. Flying through an asteroid belt was no easy trick. Janson had led two flight through it when they'd done the first round of scanning, and Corran had led three flight in the time they'd been shot at. But other than that, they'd stuck to the outskirts of the belt.

He watched as small fragments careened into other small fragments, shattering on impact and sending debris every which way. Unbidden, his mind strayed back to the Hoth evacuation, and he wondered how much damage the _Millennium Falcon_ had taken in their escape. And how much damage Jesina's _Nightwind_ and the rest of the Rogues' fighters had sustained so far. He continued to stare straight ahead, watching one of the larger asteroids fragment as it collided with another, the pieces flying outward like missiles.

"It's like a shooting gallery." He heard Hobbie's voice over the comm, giving voice to the thoughts in his own mind.

"I think I'd rather be facing down twenty armed stormtroopers with a blaster with a drained power pack," Gavin interjected.

"Who wouldn't?" Inyri replied. "The asteroids probably have better aim."

Wedge chuckled despite himself. Inyri heard and keyed her comm unit to a private frequency with Hobbie. "Mission accomplished," she said and heard him laugh.

---------------

Jesina carefully settled the _Nightwind_ on the surface of the asteroid. The flight through the asteroid field had been relatively uneventful. Janson and Tycho had just narrowly made it through – some pretty fancy flying on their parts – and Teril's x-wing had a few new dents, as did the _Nightwind_, but they were all intact. And they would all be able to make it out.

As they'd drawn closer to their target she'd run another deep surface scan, seeking caves or other openings that might provide them entrance to the hollowed areas of the rock. She'd found several and chosen the one that looked most promising when examined against their prior scan results. She'd transmitted the coordinates to her Rogue escorts – designated Night seven through twelve for this little trip – but otherwise had maintained comm silence since they'd split from Rogue flight. She figured that whoever was on the asteroid would be able to detect their presence anyway, but there was no need to broadcast it.

She, Iella, and the rest of the Intel team – Malat Seko, Meryk Jaena, Tekha Ryn and Tera Sunrider – struggled into their vacuum suits as Night Flight, under Tycho's direction, landed around the _Nightwind_ in perfect formation. The selection of the four Intel agents had been easy – they were the only ones who had any experience in zero-gravity or negative atmospheric conditions. She was a little worried about Iella, though, who had only negligible zero-g experience. Wedge had given her some direction, and Jesina hoped it would be enough.

Once mostly suited up, Jesina dug around in one of the supply crates for the durasteel thread cables they'd use to tether themselves to the ship and make their way down through the cave. She'd briefly entertained the idea of flying directly into the cave but didn't want their ability to leave in a hurry – should it be necessary, though she prayed to the Force it wouldn't – to be hindered in any way. Restricting themselves to an opening that the _Nightwind_ only narrowly fit through would be asking for trouble.

Glancing outside, she saw most of the pilots on the ground. Switching on the comm unit she asked, "Night Seven, are you set?"

She saw Tycho raise a hand and wave to her, then heard his voice. "We're a go." He was using his comlink for the last time until they were off the asteroid. At least, she hoped it would be. From here on, they'd use line-of-sight transmitters built into the helmets of their vacuum suits.

She switched off the comm system and powered down the ship to a standby mode. Restarting from that status was nearly comparable to performing a cold start for a fighter that had been hit by an ion cannon, except that it always worked. If they needed to get out in a hurry, she wouldn't have to wait long and run through a full start up for the systems to come online. Then she looked over at Iella. "Ready to go?"

"Oh, yes," Iella muttered dryly. "Looking forward to it, really." She was an ex-cop and an NRI agent. Crawling around in low or zero gravity had never been one of her life's ambitions. She preferred to leave that to her old partner and her fiancé. "Let's get going."

---------------

"No activity, no jamming," Hobbie said to Wedge over a private comm channel. "Makes me nervous."

"Hobbie, everything makes you nervous," Wedge murmured in reply. The truth was, though he didn't really want to admit it, he was concerned, too. He had complete faith in Tycho, Iella, and Jesina, but even so he didn't like being so cut off from his people. Especially when what he'd expected to happen wasn't happening. Sure, everything _seemed_ to be going in their favor, but he'd learned long ago that appearances often meant nothing. Sometimes less than nothing.

Then he heard Ensa's voice. "You were saying, six?"

Wedge cast a quick glance in the general direction of the HUD, seeing several small blips appear out of nowhere. A moment later the system identified them as unknown, starfighter class. Uglies. A squadron of them, headed straight for the asteroid. They had to know that the Rogues were there but they gave no indication, never straying from their course in the slightest. He cursed under his breath.

"Looks like we were right, Lead," Gavin observed.

"Yeah," Hobbie cut in. "But didn't they head _out_ of the field last time you saw them, twelve? Eleven?" Both Gavin and Inyri had been on the patrol that had come briefly under fire.

"Yeah, they did. They didn't give us a chance to see where they were coming from or where they were going," Gavin replied.

"Well, they don't seem to have any reservations about it now," Wedge muttered, knowing where Hobbie was headed with this. "Which means that they probably know that we know where they are."

"Which means that they probably know we have people on the ground," Inyri put in, bringing Wedge's thought to its logical conclusion.

"What do we do, Lead?" Duryll asked.

Wedge sighed. They had two options. They could engage – he had no doubt that the six of them could handle the twelve uglies. Even the galaxy's best pilots couldn't take them on in those junkyard rejects. And the galaxy's best wouldn't deign to fly those things. But he doubted that doing so would help Iella's team at all. It could even make things worse. And they had no way to communicate any warning to the others. "We let them go."

"Lead," Inyri started.

He cut her off. "We let them go."

---------------

As they made their way deeper into the asteroid, keeping in pairs but with significant distance in between each, they – thankfully, as far as Iella was concerned – encountered ever-increasing gravity, making it easier to walk. The atmosphere, though present in the lower depths, wasn't breathable, polluted by gas fissures in the walls. There was, however, enough oxygen for their breathing masks to simply filter it so they didn't have to rely on stored oxygen. Ooryl, of course, could not have cared either way.

The first hour or so of their trek was uneventful – walking further and further into darkness with nothing to break the monotony. In fact, it was so uneventful, that Iella almost wished something would happen. Almost. Not quite. Slowly, though, she realized it was no longer as dark as it had been. Either her eyes had made a significant adjustment or…. She nudged Jesina. "Look."

She did. It looked as if they were about to come to an end of this particular tunnel. The passage they were in opened up a few meters ahead of them into an area that was as bright as day. Slowly, the two women approached the opening, Jesina pausing while Iella went on ahead to turn and motion Tycho forward. Nodding to her, he gestured for the others to hang back as he joined them at the tunnel's end.

They stood at the edge of a huge cavern. It might have been naturally occurring, though Tycho wouldn't have bet his life on that. Only a few centimeters beyond where Iella stood, the floor of the passage dropped off. It was, he guessed, about a hundred meters straight down. He let out a low whistle, distorted by the communications equipment. "Good thing we brought climbing gear along," he murmured.

Iella stepped forward, looking to see where, if anywhere, other passages fed into the cavern – and also to see if there was anyone at the bottom who might see them. As she put her foot down, though, the rock floor crumbled under her weight. As Iella's scream echoed in his ears, Tycho grabbed Jesina's arm, yanking her backward and falling to the ground with her as the floor they'd both been standing on fell way. He felt hands pulling them both away from the edge.

He never had a chance to reach for Iella, and the others – even those who'd pulled him and Jesina back – had been too far away to get to her in time. Gasping for breath, he saw Corran out of the corner of his eye, stretched along the floor, arms and torso dangling over the edge. Obviously, Horn had tried to get to his old partner in time but hadn't succeeded. Only Janson, who had him by his ankles, had kept him from following her.


	19. Storm

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 19: Storm

---------------

Jesina crawled slowly back toward the rest of the group lest more of the tunnel floor give way. She bit back a cry as she put her knee down a little too hard, aggravating what was already becoming a bad bruise. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tycho doing the same. Once she felt she was far enough away from the edge she stopped and turned around, rubbing her knee gingerly.

Wes was pulling Corran back literally a centimeter at a time. He was in a more precarious position than she and Tycho had been and the ground continued to crumble under his weight. Just as she thought Corran was safe to start moving on his own – as, apparently, did he, since he rose to his hands and knees, more of the floor gave way. Wes and Tycho both lunged for the Corellian, Wes catching one of his legs and Tycho catching a handful of the vacuum suit he was wearing. He was now in a worse position than before, his torso hanging over the edge, and he could see Iella's prone form on a ledge about forty meters down.

Jesina felt something being pressed into her hand. Looking over, she saw that Ooryl was handing her a cable, the type used to tether space walkers to their ships. "Ooryl, you're wonderful." He gave her a curt nod and drew back as she passed the end of the cable to Tycho who fastened it to the ring at Corran's waist.

She attached the other to, for lack of anything better, herself and motioned for the others to anchor her. Corran wasn't a large man, but what little size he had was muscle, so she knew he was heavier than he looked to be. Still, with Donos, Tekha, and Malat anchoring her – the three men who weren't otherwise occupied – she knew she'd be okay. Besides, it was only a safeguard in case he started to fall. Wes wasn't exactly planning on just letting go of him.

Slowly, Wes crawled backward, pulling Corran with him as Tycho mimicked his motions, shifting his grasp to the cable. He didn't share Jesina's apparent certainty that she wouldn't be pulled over with Corran if he fell, and wanted to cut down the possibility of that happening.

After what felt like a short eternity, Corran was back with them, this time having let them pull him back the entire way with only negligible effort on his part. He sat pressed against the wall, eyes closed, barely breathing. Jesina glanced at Tycho. "What's he doing?"

"Meditating, I think. He's probably trying to sense Iella."

They watched in silence for a moment until Corran opened his eyes and proved Tycho's assessment correct. "She's alive. She's hurt badly and unless she gets medical assistance soon, she won't make it."

Jesina felt a chill run down her spine. She didn't have a whole lot of experience with Jedi. She believed in the Force but didn't understand it and the idea of Corran being able to sense his old partner and how badly hurt she might be was foreign to her. And a little unnerving. "Can you tell where she is?" she asked slowly.

"Yes, but I don't need to. When I almost fell, I saw her. She's on a ledge thirty or forty meters below us."

Jesina massaged her temples and sighed. They needed to reach Iella – that much she was sure of. But this passage could hardly be described as stable. They couldn't exactly walk to the end and then lower someone over the edge. "How do we—?" she started but stopped when a strange expression came over Corran's face. "What?"

"We're in trouble."

A second later she heard footsteps. "Sithspit," she muttered. The sound was coming from behind them, and they had absolutely nowhere to go.

---------------

Jesina, hands clasped behind her head, was at the front of the group as they were herded back the way they'd come and through a maze of other camouflaged tunnels that they likely would never have found. After reaching what had to have been a manmade chamber, they were ordered to remove their vacuum suits and were given gas masks. Then their hands were bound with thick rope, but a vibroblade was left on a shelf at least ten meters off the ground.

Which made, she thought, absolutely no sense. "Why would they leave us a way to get out?" she asked, keeping her voice low.

Tycho met her eyes and glanced at Corran, who had his eyes closed and wore a pained expression. "Corran?" she asked softly.

After a long moment he opened his eyes. "Whoever we're dealing with knows more about us than they should," he mumbled.

"I don't follow you," she said, confusion and concern in her eyes. He seemed distressed, and she couldn't figure out why. Unless he was sensing Iella's pain again.

"Corran's Force strength manifests itself in mental capabilities – manipulating what people think they're seeing and such. Telekinesis isn't his thing."

"Only when I'm angry." Corran's voice was strained.

Suddenly, it made sense. She didn't know a whole lot about the Force, but she knew enough to figure out what was going on. Whoever had them was either using or working with a Force adept. Iella was injured, probably dying. And they were giving Corran a choice between remaining true to the light side of the Force or saving Iella and risking a fall to the Dark Side. "They want to turn you."

He nodded, prompting a query from Donos. "How do they know? I thought only a few people knew you were a Jedi."

"And even fewer know about my lack of ability with telekinesis." He shrugged. "I don't know how they know, but they do."

"But they couldn't have planned for Iella to fall, could they?" Teril asked.

"No, but some Jedi often have visions about future events, and most have them every once in a while. It's possible that the Force-user we're here to find saw this happening." He sighed and leaned his head back against the wall.

Jesina could see the storm of emotions on his face. She couldn't imagine having to choose between staying true to philosophical principles and saving the life of someone as much a part of her as Iella was of him. She knew what choice he needed to make – if he chose to save Iella their lives were probably forfeit – and she knew he knew that. And she knew that was probably what he would do. She didn't think she could make the same decision if she were in his place. She tried to imagine herself in his position, with Tycho's life on the line. She couldn't.

Corran could actually see Iella, still on the ledge. He could hear her shallow breathing, feeling it through his body as though there were a weight on his chest. He could feel the physical pain radiating from her, feel it so intensely that he almost cried out. And he could feel her fear – real, palpable fear. _Help me, Iella,_ he pleaded with her. _Show me what to do. I can't make this decision alone._ But all he received in reply was another wave of pain.

He reached out slowly toward the vibroblade, trying, hoping, to channel her anguish in the hopes that perhaps the intensity of an emotion other than anger could have the same effect. He felt the essence of the weapon, saw it shifting in his mind. But when he opened his eyes, it remained where it had been when he'd closed them.

Slowly, he allowed himself to sink into the anger that was threatening to overwhelm him. Anger at Iella's pain, at being manipulated this way, at being made to make this choice. And anger at not being strong enough to make the right choice. He could literally feel the darkness washing over him, but no longer cared. It was giving him the strength to save Iella, and that was all that mattered.

Then a voice cut through the dark veil, a force signature he recognized but could not place. _"You mustn't do this, Corran. The risk is too great. I have been there. I know. You must not take this chance."_

_I have no choice. She'll die._

"_Then she will die. Better one life sacrificed for a greater cause than eleven lost and one destroyed. And more lost beyond that, because of that destruction."_

_I cannot accept that._ He reached out again, channeling his anger, allowing it to flow through him and felt the vibroblade begin to move toward them.

Jesina's eyes widened. Oh no. "Corran," she began, but Tycho shook his head.

"He needs to make this choice on his own."

Jesina could have sworn she heard a voice whisper in her ear, "Not on his own."

---------------

Corran felt as if he was trapped in the swirls of a storm. He no longer had control and no longer cared that he didn't. He let himself sink deeper into its depths, reveling in the feeling of power it instilled in him. He'd never felt anything like this before, never felt such strength.

"_Corran, you must not do this."_ The voice had returned. _"There is another way. You must come back to the light before you destroy all for which you have fought. If you do this, you will be beyond my help."_

_What help can you offer?_ he thought back scornfully. _You can do nothing for us now._

"_Trust in me, Corran. Trust in the Force. It would not betray you. It would not lead you astray. Others manipulate you, but it holds the truth. Come back to the light, Corran."_

He felt as if his eyes were being forced open. His tenuous hold on the vibroblade faltered, sending it clattering to the floor. Gasping from exertion, he saw the others staring at him, not a little fear in their eyes. He could feel the dark side energy running through his body.

Uncomfortable under their stunned stares, he looked away from Jesina and Tycho. But Wes, Teril and Donos were on to his left, Ooryl and the intelligence team to his right. And he realized that the Jedi who had just reached out to him – whoever it had been – had literally been trying to open his eyes. And he had, forcing him to see who he would be sacrificing to save Iella.


	20. Dark vs Light

**Please, Please, Please Review. I worked really hard on this chapter and I really like the way it came out. I'd really like to know if other people like it.**

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 20: Dark vs. Light

---------------

Tycho drew a deep breath. Corran's Dark Side…manifestation, as it were, had chilled him to the bone. Despite all the time he'd spent with Luke and Leia, he hadn't realized that it was possible for non-Force sensitives to feel the Force. But he couldn't think of any other way to explain the sensation he'd just experienced.

The Jedi was calm now, leaning against the wall. His eyes were open but he didn't move, didn't even blink. It was incredibly unnerving.

He dragged his eyes away from him and looked at Jesina. "We need to get out of here," she said, mouthing the words, "Before he loses it."

He nodded and glanced around. Corran's display of telekinesis had benefited them, though he had the distinct feeling that the benefit would be outweighed before long. The vibroblade might – _might_ – now be within their reach. Their captors – the five men in hoods and masks – had been smart. They hadn't just bound their hands. They'd tied them to metal pins in the rock wall.

Another look around told him that if they wanted to get a hold on the vibroblade without the aid of the Force Teril was their best chance. He opened his mouth to tell the younger Rogue to see if she could reach it but she'd already apparently come to the same conclusion. He watched as she wriggled around, working her arms so they were above her head to give herself a little extra distance. The effort was not without pain, however – she nearly dislocated her shoulder. But she managed to lay flat against the ground, arms raised slightly because of how she was secured to the wall. Her face a mask of pain, she continued to stretch even further until she was able to put the toe of her boot onto the blade.

Just as she reached it, though, that same chilling sensation returned. He watched as Teril slid back toward the wall, clearly not under her own power. She let out a little whimper and tried to sit up before hitting her head on the wall but missed. Tycho winced when her head connected a little too hard with the rock and she cried out softly.

Then the vibroblade rose again, this time more controlled, and danced through the air as if suspended by an invisible string. It floated over to Tycho, landing within his reach, as Corran, somehow freed, rose from the floor.

---------------

Corran watched Tycho look around, watched his eyes settle on Teril, and watched her start to move. He reached out to Iella, feeling her life waning. _No!! Iella!!_ As he mentally called out to her, he felt the dark shroud beginning to settle over him again and welcomed it, settling into its icy embrace. He could almost see the Force surround him, could hear it calling out to him. _I must save her_, he thought desperately. Taking another look around the room, at the faces of the other pilots and of Iella's team, he closed his eyes once more, allowing the dark energy to overtake him, pulling him down.

He heard the voice again, pleading with him. _"Corran, you betray her life and her memory. And you will destroy yourself and all those you seek to save. You must listen to me. I know your pain. I have felt it, in you and in myself. But you cannot let it control you. The Dark Side is strong, and it feeds on your fear and pain. But you can fight it. You must fight it. You are strong enough for that. If you yield to its influence, there will be no turning back. The Light will forever evade you." _He did not answer back, ignoring the being that sought to sway him from his chosen path.

He pushed Teril back against the wall, sensing her surprise and fear and reveling in it as it strengthened him. Fear really _did_ feed the Dark Side. He reached out for the vibroblade, lifting it and controlling it with much more ease than before and guiding it to Tycho. As he lowered it by the Rogue's bound hands, he turned his attention to the cords that bound his wrists. Mentally grasping one end, he loosened the knot enough to pull one hand out and shook the ropes off, then rose. He walked by the others, not noticing their bewildered stares, and pressed his hand to the door. He envisioned the locking mechanism and manipulated it until he heard a click and used the Force to slide it open, then slipped out the door, leaving his friends to their own devices.

---------------

Wes watched Corran go, his heart sinking to his feet. "Tycho, what I think just happened, um, didn't, right?"

Tycho didn't answer. Despite the ill means by which he'd been given a way out, he was going to take it and deal with the consequences later. He grasped the handle and twisted it up, feeling the cold metal against his skin as he pressed the blade to the ropes and began to saw through the strands. More than once his grip slipped and he cut his hand or wrist instead. He winced and bit his lip as blood dripped down his hands, but a few tense minutes later it had paid off and he was able to pull his hands free. He rubbed his raw wrists for a moment before turning his attention to Jesina, who was closest to him. "Are you okay?" she asked, seeing the blood on his hands.

He nodded. "I'll be all right." He knelt behind her and cut the ropes with a few quick swipes, then nodded toward Wes, Myn, and Teril. "Untie them, and check her head, will you?"

She nodded and headed over to Teril first, freed her, and checked for any significant injuries. The woman protested that she was fine and, when Jesina was satisfied that she was, she moved on to Wes and had Teril untie Myn. By the time they finished, Ooryl and the Intel team were standing. "What now?"

"We hope Corran didn't lock the door behind him," Tycho answered, walking cautiously toward the door. But when he was about a meter away, it opened, and he stepped back quickly. And froze when he saw who stood beyond it.

---------------

Corran had made his way down through the tunnels, pursuing Iella's weakening presence. She was no longer on the ledge – they'd found her and moved her, though he didn't know how they'd reached her. It didn't matter, though. Her current location made it easier for him.

As he went, he reached out through the Force in an attempt to identify the Dark Jedi that he knew was somewhere in the asteroid's depths. A voice danced through his mind. _"You need not look very far for a Dark Jedi."_ It was the same Force signature as the voice that had haunted him earlier.

_Quiet!_ he shouted in his mind. _You did this. And you'll pay for it._

"_I did nothing. This time. And yet, I am paying for it, paying for it more the deeper you go. I don't want to see you do this, Corran. But I fear it is too late to stop you."_

_Too late indeed. I will find her. And I will save her. And then I'll come after you._

"_I don't recommend that. And you'll need help saving her. The Dark Side's healing power is not as strong as the Light. And you've tainted yourself now, Corran."_

He slammed his mental shields down, unwilling to be preached to any longer, and wondered why he hadn't done it before. _Stay out of my head_, he thought to himself as he continued to travel ever deeper.

After a few minutes he cautiously reached, surrounding himself with the Force once more, searching for Iella. But he could not find her.

---------------

"You," Tycho hissed at the man who stood before him. The familiar figure was swathed in a black cloak, the hood nearly hiding his face. But only nearly. Even in the dim light, Tycho recognized him. Just as he recognized the woman he cradled in his arms.

The Jedi brushed by him without a word and lay Iella on the floor. He knelt over her, placing his hands on her, one on her head and one over her heart. He murmured softly to her as the pilots and NRI gathered round them. After a long, tense silence, Kyp Durron looked up at them, and Wes swore under his breath as he got his first clear look at their visitor. Jesina glanced at him, confusion written all over her face. "You need to get her out of here. I'm not as skilled with healing as I'd like to be, and I can't keep her alive much longer. They have little here for medical supplies, and nothing that would help her."

"What are you doing here?" Tycho asked, eyes blazing with barely contained fury. If Durron was at all responsible for this, he'd pay for it. Wedge would see to that - if he himself didn't.

"We haven't time for that now. I will tell you how to get out of here, and you must go. I don't have the strength to keep this up much longer. She'll survive the trip back to Hoth. Barely, but she will. Provided you aren't delayed."

"Will someone fill me in?" Jesina asked. She didn't know who this man was, why Tycho looked like he wanted to kill him, or what he was doing with Iella. Her agents murmured their agreement.

"Later," Tycho muttered. He looked back at the Jedi. "Our ships are on the surface. They took our vacuum suits. We have no idea where we are."

"The suits are in the chamber next to this. I'll show you how to get out – we actually aren't far from where you entered. And you needn't worry about anyone stopping you. I have them chasing ghosts."

Jesina frowned. "Who are you?"

He glanced down at Iella and then back up. "My name is Kyp Durron. I'm a Jedi. And I'm helping you get out of here. If you want to know anything more, you'll have to wait. You need to go."

"What about you?" Wes asked.

"I wish I could go with you. She'd have a better chance of surviving the trip if I could. But I need to go after Corran. If we lose him, we're in trouble. He's much more powerful than you might think, especially with the Dark Side at his command."

"A little late for that," Wes muttered.

Kyp turned his full attention to the pilot. "Look, Janson. I know you don't like me. But you don't have any choice but to trust me. Leave Corran to me. You need to worry about Iella. Get your vacuum suits. They're all there. And then I will show you the way out." He returned his hands to Iella's chest and closed his eyes.

Tycho met Janson's angry gaze and shook his head. "Later, Wes. He's right. We need to go. And none of us is anywhere near capable of dealing with Corran."

"We can't leave him here."

"I'll get him back to Hoth for you," Kyp said, breaking his concentration for a moment. "Now, you must hurry, or she won't have the strength left to survive the flight back."

Tycho motioned for them to get their gear – vacuum suits, helmets and knapsacks. "You'd better be right, Durron. Or no one will be able to protect you from Wedge."

"I am right, Celchu. I know what's happening to Corran now. And, out of everyone in this system, I'm the only one who can bring him back. You have no choice but to trust me."

"I know," Tycho said finally. "That's what bothers me."

---------------

Corran could feel the men approach long before they reached him. The Dark Side gave him a much clearer vision than the Light ever had. He drew on its power, its energy, and waited for them to come. They had killed her, and they would die for it. And then he would deal with the Jedi.

---------------

"She's not breathing," Tycho said as Kyp handed Iella off to him at the mouth of the cave.

"She is, just barely. I've put her into a healing trance. It's not very deep, and she'll come out of it when her body is no longer so weak." _Or when she dies_, he thought, but didn't say that part aloud.

"I didn't know you could do that," Wes said. He'd warmed slightly to Kyp after the man had gotten them out without incident. He still didn't like him, but he had saved Iella's life – so far anyway – and he felt he owed him something for that.

"It's very difficult, and often not effective. But it's her only chance. It will take the strain off her body, hopefully long enough to keep her alive. It's her only chance," he said again. Then he turned away. "I have to go."

Jesina watched him leave for a moment, then shook her head. She didn't have the slightest clue what had just happened, but she didn't have time to wonder. "Come on," she said, breaking into a run as she headed for the _Nightwind_.

---------------

As the men came at him, three from one side and four from another, Corran dispatched them effortlessly. A flick of his wrist sent two of them flying, their bodies colliding with the wall with a thud that echoed through the cavern.

Three of them stood side by side and drew their blasters. They opened fire on him but he simply raised his hand, never flinching. He absorbed the energy for a moment, reveling in the almost physical current of power that flowed through him. Then he deflected a few of the bolts, sending them back into the men who had fired them. They dropped one at a time, screaming in both fear and pain, and then lay still.

As the two remaining faltered, he drew his lightsaber and, activating it, advanced on them. They were the ones who'd sought to turn him, and now they would pay for their mistake. "Who leads you?"

The one on the left put up his hands in a defensive – but altogether useless – posture. "It's not me. It's him. It was all his idea."

With a wave of his hand, Corran pushed the man back against the wall. Not throwing him this time – just pinning him in an invisible grip. The man struggled against the unseen barrier but his effort was in vain.

The Jedi turned his attention to the leader. "Why? What did you seek to gain from this?"

"You'll never know," came the defiant response.

"Indeed." Corran deactivated his lightsaber, clipping it to his belt again. Then he raised both hands, again summoning the Dark Side's lethal energy, and Force lightening shot from his fingertips. He watched with a sick satisfaction as the man fell, screaming his anguish, and writhed on the floor at his mercy.


	21. Dancing with the Dark Side

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 21: Dancing With the Dark Side

---------------

As soon as they'd taken off, Jesina commed Wedge. "Rogue Lead, come in. Rogue Lead, are you there?"

"Here, _Nightwind_. What do you need?"

"Go back to Hoth. Make sure there's a medical team waiting for us, and that they have a bacta tank ready."

On the other end of the conversation, Wedge stared at the comm unit. There was an urgency to her voice that he remembered hearing only on rare occasions. "Who, Jes?" A dozen thoughts ran through his mind, none of them, for some reason, matching reality. So it hit him hard when Jesina's reply came back.

"Iella."

---------------

Kyp ran through the hollowed corridors as fast as he could – which wasn't fast at all. Keeping Iella alive and putting her into the trance had weakened him severely. He hoped that Horn would be in a mood to be cooperative once he found him. Otherwise he wouldn't have a chance against the other Jedi.

He wasn't betting on that, though. Once he'd opened himself fully to the Force, the Corellian had been easy to find. His Force signature was akin to a fire blazing against the black of night: powerful, dangerous, and anything but subtle. And he could feel the Dark Side energy that the other man was calling on to aid him in his quest for revenge.

_I don't get there soon,_ he thought to himself, _I'll have a full-fledged Dark Jedi on my hands, instead of one just dancing with the Dark Side._ Of course, that was provided that the man hadn't already gone too far over to the other side.

He stopped short as he reached the corner. Horn was in the next chamber. He didn't even need the Force. He could hear the Corellian speak to one of the men, though he couldn't hear the response. The next thing he heard were the man's anguished screams. As he rounded the corner he drew his lightsaber and activated it, but the light of the weapon was nothing compared to the illumination from the Force lightning streaming from Horn's fingertips. "Enough!" he yelled, but the Jedi never faltered.

Summoning his strength, Kyp raised his hand, sending the other Jedi back against the wall. It broke Horn's focus on the unfortunate Imperial, who continued to writhe and jerk for a moment before he lay still. Kyp stood a few meters away from Horn, dropping into a fighting stance. He thought he could take anything the Jedi could throw at him – for a few minutes at least. He was wrong.

---------------

"Lean on it, Dreis," Wes hissed through clenched teeth as he narrowly dodged a small chunk of rock. It wouldn't have done much damage if it had hit him, but given the choice, he preferred not to take the chance.

Jesina scowled at the comm unit as she dove and then almost immediately went back into a climb. The trip out seemed to be more difficult than the trip in. "Lean on it," she muttered to himself. "You lean on it." Aloud she retorted, "I'm going as fast as I can. I go any faster I'm going to get rocked. And I won't see it until it hits me."

"Night flight, form a perimeter around the _Nightwind_," Tycho's voice cut into their spat. "Anything small, blast it away. Anything big, give a shout." He paused. "Lay off, Janson."

"A little warning there?" Malat shouted as she deliberately rocked the ship from side to side, just barely slipping between a larger asteroid and a medium-sized one. Checking her scopes, she watched the two collide and yelled into the comm. "Dive! Now!"

Swallowing hard, she clung to the stick and prayed that her belt would hold as the ship was pummeled with debris. "All power to rear shields. And hang on!"

---------------

Kyp wasn't prepared for the ball of dark energy that slammed into his chest, flinging him backward. He didn't hit the wall, but he landed flat on his back, his head connecting soundly with the rock floor. He fought the darkness that seeped into the edges of his vision, using the Force to shunt the pain away.

"Corran, listen to me," he pleaded as he struggled to his feet.

The Corellian Jedi advanced slowly on him. "You're the one? Who killed those Senators? Who killed Iella?"

Kyp shook his head. "No. I didn't kill anyone."

Horn raised his hand and Kyp sensed his intention a moment before the Force lightning shot from his fingers once again. He held his lightsaber up, grimacing as he fought the current. His hands burned as the heat seared his skin. He remembered briefly Luke's account of his electrocution, and was glad the Jedi had taught him something about how to defend against it. "Iella…is still…alive," he gasped out, his strength finally giving way as he fell to his knees.

Luckily, his words made their way through the darkness around Corran's mind. He used the last of his energy to project outward the image of Iella on board Dreis' ship.

Horn faltered, unsure of what to believe. Kyp, twitching slightly because of the Force lightning that had gotten past his defenses at the end, fought to raise his head. "I'm not lying, Corran. See that for yourself. I don't have strength enough to deceive you. It took everything I had to keep Iella alive."

The other man shook his head. "I can't sense her."

"She's too weak. And I put her into a healing trance." He could see that Horn didn't believe him. "You know I'm telling you the truth, Corran. Use the Force. You can see that I'm not lying."

Slowly, he felt Horn's tentative presence in his mind. "Where is she?" he spat out.

"With Dreis and the others. They're bringing her back to Hoth, for treatment."

"Will she live?"

"I don't know. You know I can't see that far," he murmured. He didn't say that she'd have had a better chance if he'd been able to go with them rather than coming after Horn.

But he didn't have to. He could tell that the thought had occurred to the other Jedi. His shoulders slumped and he fell to his knees, staring blankly ahead.

---------------

Jesina saw a fighter-sized chunk of the shattered asteroid heading straight for Tycho. "Tycho! Tera!" She yelled a warning to her friend and an order to her subordinate. Tycho couldn't get out of the way fast enough, but by the time the rock would have connected with his ship, it was nothing but pebbles and space dust that grazed harmlessly against his shields.

"Thanks, _Nightwind_."

"That's what I'm here for," she returned. "Nice shooting, Tera." The woman was a trained sniper – she'd performed at least one assassination that Jesina knew of – and could probably match Janson's skills as a gunner. Her abilities had come in very handy on this trip.

"That's what I'm here for," the other woman responded, and Jesina could almost hear the grin in her voice over the communicator.

She smiled despite the situation. "That you are." Then her smile faded. She sent the ship into an almost vertical drop, hearing curses from her passengers, and skimmed across the surface of one of the larger asteroids. Coming up again, she saw another, roughly the size of the _Nightwind_, heading straight for her. "Hold on!" she shouted, sending the ship into a roll to port, just barely escaping a collision. But no one saw the next rock hidden by the mass shadow of the one she'd just missed.

---------------

Kyp rested his head on the ground for a second, taking shallow breaths and trying to regain his strength. He'd managed to get through to Horn – briefly, anyway – and he was glad. Because if things had gone on the way they were, he'd likely not have gotten up again.

Slowly, he rolled over onto his stomach and raised himself onto his forearms, then slowly rose to his hands and knees. Breathing heavily, he tried to get to his feet but couldn't. Giving up, he crawled across the floor to reach Corran's side.

The Corellian rocked back on his heels, eyes closed. Kyp could feel his confusion. It broadcast through the Force so clearly that he felt almost as if it had taken on a living form and stood before him in the cave.

He could also feel the other man's desperation in the Force. He was reaching frantically for the light, but fighting through the darkness was no easy task. Kyp knew that firsthand.

He drew himself up slightly and knelt in front of the other Jedi, placing a hand on each of his shoulders. "You need to listen to me, Corran."

The Jedi opened his eyes and blinked several times. "What did I do?"

Kyp sighed. _How am I supposed to answer that?_ he asked himself. Tact was hardly his strong suit. "You slipped," he said simply. "You let your anger get the better of you. You were angry about Iella, and you wouldn't see reason."

Horn blinked at him several times. "I don't…I can't…" He closed his eyes again and shook his head.

Kyp felt for him, he really did. He knew what it was like. The Dark Side held sway over a mind like no other force in the galaxy. And it was inviting. Cold as it was, the power it held just welcomed you in, enveloping you. And once you began to wield that power, the coldness, the darkness – none of it mattered anymore. The strength you gleaned from it more than made up for the torment.

He sighed. "Yes, you can. You have to. You need to get up. And you need to come back with me."

"I can't…I can't face them."

"If you can, I can. Corran, you killed seven men who, as much as I shouldn't be saying this, deserved what they got. I destroyed an entire planet. If I could face Luke and the others after that, you can face Antilles and the rest of them."

Horn shook his head. "No. I can't."

"Yes, you can. You have to."

The Corellian opened his eyes again. "How did you do it?"

"Do what?" Kyp asked. He had a feeling he knew what Horn was asking, but wasn't sure.

The other Jedi repositioned himself, shifting from the squatting position he'd been in to sitting cross-legged on the floor. "How did you come back?"

Kyp adjusted himself as well. This wasn't a conversation he was accustomed to having. And it wasn't one that he really wanted to have right now. Or at all, for that matter. But he felt he didn't have a choice, if he wanted the Corellian to come back with him. Besides, if someone could benefit from his struggles, then maybe some good could come of all those lives lost.

"I…it wasn't easy. It took a lot of time. And it's always there. The temptation isn't necessarily always there, but the next time anger hits you, the pull toward the Dark Side is stronger. And the reminder is always there. You'll always remember that you gave in, that you weren't strong enough to withstand it. And that weakens you. It makes it harder to resist."

"It's so…empowering. I've never felt so strong."

"That's because it controls you. You don't worry about what you should or shouldn't be doing, because it doesn't matter. You don't control the Dark Side, and that's the mistake we make."

"I could have killed you."

Kyp shrugged uneasily, knowing exactly how true the statement was. He'd been weak after struggling with Iella, and if Horn had hit him with the full force of his anger, there would have been no way he could have withstood the barrage. "Yeah, you could have. But you didn't." He shrugged again. "For whatever reason, the Force was on my side this time."


	22. Sacrifice

**chris063: **Thanks...I worked really hard on the Corran scenes...I'm glad you liked it so much.

**RowenaR:** I tend to write action the least...I'm much more interested in character development, emotion, etc. That's actually why I like the pilots - there's so much more room for character development

**Alhana-Antilles:** You don't get much attention to the battle of Hoth other than from Luke and Leia's point of views in the movies...and it's easy to forget that other people were there, and that they went through as much as - if not more - than Luke did. Glad you liked those lines. I liked them, too. Wes is one of my favorites.

---------------

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 22: Sacrifice

---------------

Having decided that Horn had come back to his senses enough – for the moment anyway – Kyp told him how to get back to his fighter and then headed off to find his own way back to Hoth. He'd been around long enough to know where to find a shuttle, and just hoped that the squadron of Uglies was out on patrol. He'd gotten in good with this crew – an Imperial offshoot in over their heads – about a month ago, but he doubted that the goodwill would still exist if they'd come back and been unable to get in touch with the rest of their group.

He kept a minimal mental connection with Horn as he went, and could feel the emotions warring back and forth within the man. Anger, helplessness, guilt…they were all sentiments he was intimately familiar with from his own fall to the Dark Side. He relived them every day. Every day he thought about Luke or Han, or Horn, for that matter. Or Zeth.

Kyp pushed the thoughts aside, shunting away the emotional pain with great difficulty. He needed to keep it together and get off this rock – Horn's sanity depended on it. Not that he was looking forward to dealing with Antilles, or anyone else, for that matter, when they reached Hoth.

Still maintaining his connection with Horn, he reached the corridor he was looking for. Slowly, he extended his Force sense to cover the hangar. And froze.

The squadron that he'd hoped was still out in the field…wasn't. They were in there. And they seemed to be waiting for him.

He thought back to how he'd found Horn, and the men on the ground. How many had been there? Two against the wall, one…two…three with blaster wounds, another against the wall, and the one he'd been electrocuting. Seven. But there were eight.

---------------

Jesina yanked the stick hard, for the first time in her life afraid that she might actually break it. The ship turned sideways, sending her passengers, strapped in though most of them had been, tumbling into each other. But even that maneuver wasn't enough to get them out of the asteroid's trajectory. The starboard corner of the cockpit slammed into the surface of the asteroid, sending the _Nightwind_ cartwheeling off into space.

She could hear Tycho hailing her over the comm, but responding to him was the least of her concerns as the freighter was battered by debris broken off in their collision only moments earlier. She fought to get the vehicle under control and, though her heart refused to believe it, her mind wondered if it wasn't a losing battle.

---------------

Kyp thought for a moment. They were a full squadron…twelve men. They'd have been no match for him and Horn together, and he knew if he let himself go he'd have no trouble getting off this Force-forsaken rock. But with Horn so close to the edge right now, he was hesitant to risk using any excessive use of the Force, even if he had no intention of harming anyone.

He flattened himself against the wall. He didn't have much choice, no matter how much he wanted to avoid it. He'd just have to rely on it as little as possible. Drawing his lightsaber but leaving it unlit, he let himself sink slightly into the Force. Summoning it, he put the image into the men's minds of him standing over their late comrades – and mentally urged them to go after him, that they might save their leaders. Then he watched as seven men – half the squad plus the sole surviving ringleader – ran by him, never once looking in his direction.

_Good. Only six more. That I can handle, even without the Force_. He was skilled enough with a lightsaber that he was confident he could make it through this with only negligible use of the Force. Extending the beam, he stepped into the doorway, drawing their attention in an instant.

He had only seconds to take in their positions before the blaster bolts started to fly.

---------------

Tycho watched helplessly as the _Nightwind_ went spiraling away from them. There was nothing he could do but put faith in Jesina's piloting skills. She was as good as any one of them in a fighter and better than Wedge was in a freighter like that.

He tried contacting her, but got no response. He told himself it was just that she was focusing on keeping them alive, but wasn't being very successful in convincing himself.

"Seven?" he heard Myn's tentative voice.

"Yeah?"

"Is there anything…?"

"Wait."

Then he heard Wes cut in. "Praying wouldn't hurt either."

---------------

Corran climbed shakily into his cockpit. He wanted nothing more than to retreat into himself and avoid any and all sentient contact – human or otherwise. But he knew that the others wouldn't allow it. Durron certainly wouldn't, and he didn't foresee Wedge letting him languish in his own regrets.

He greeted his astromech and was surprised that the little droid could tell so quickly that something was wrong. "Just get us back," he murmured wearily, and received a peeved blat in reply. He couldn't blame him. Whistler might as well have been a member of his family…Mirax even charged the droid with looking after him when they were apart.

Shifting power to the repulsorlifts, he lifted off the asteroid with relative ease, and then locked his S-foils in cruise position. He set a course for Hoth, but refused Whistler's offer to take over. Not only was an asteroid field less than conducive to autopilot, but he needed to do something – anything – that was even remotely constructive.

He did have the droid map him the fastest route out of the belt, though. He might have felt like flying on his own, but he had no desire to get killed doing it.

Despite the focus he needed in order to make it out of the belt, his mind did wander. Mirax. What would she say if she were told – when she were told – what he'd done? For that matter, what about Iella? She'd kill him for risking everything to try to save her. He could hear the words in his mind. _I got into this knowing what could happen. You could have cost more lives than just one. It wasn't worth it. It's never worth that kind of sacrifice._ The words played over and over again, like a holo message set on repeat.

And what would Luke say? There was only so much he could say…he'd made the same mistake, as had many of his students. He'd understand, and offer his compassion…_and then I'll get angry at him for placating me._

Corran sighed and pounded his hands on the console in frustration. All he could think about was the disappointment he knew he'd see in every face he looked at, hear in every voice that spoke to him.

---------------

Jesina groaned as her head connected soundly with the center panel. She managed to stay in her seat – she'd have to remember to write to the company that manufactured such a sturdy harness. She braced herself – feet planted wide apart and both hands on the stick, arms locked. She tried to straighten out, but knew she couldn't do much until the craft lost momentum. All she could really do was wait it out and try to keep the spiral from getting any worse. And pray that no more large rocks came out of nowhere.

As the vehicle slowly began to slow, she barked out, "Everyone okay back there? What's the damage? Can someone hit the comm so he stops yelling at me?" and got, she figured, about fifteen responses back at once. A neat trick since there were only six of them on board, and one was comatose. "One at a time, now."

"Well, I don't think that ride did Iella much good," Malat replied. "And the rest of us might have minor – ouch!" she interrupted herself as she slammed against a cabinet once more, "concussions," she muttered, "and cuts and bruises, but we'll be okay."

Jesina glanced quickly to her right as Tekha slid into the copilot's seat – the seat she'd been occupying until all the fun started. "Night seven, we're all right. We'll have a damage report momentarily." The Rodian glanced over his shoulder at Tera and gave her a pointed look.

The woman tossed a glare in his direction. "Give me a second." She ran a finger down a screen. "Shields are gone, hull breaches in the storage units – nothing to worry about right now. Front end is pretty well smashed in. Port engine is history – that probably helped slow us down." She paused. "Um…hyperdrive motivator's gone. Lot of surface damage."

She dropped onto a seat. "All in all…could be worse. Most of the damage is superficial – that sensor package is going to be expensive to replace, though. And I'm amazed the comm still works. There are a lot of other little things, but we'll make it back in one piece. So long as we don't do that again, at least."

---------------

Most of the bolts missed Kyp – by a good meter or two. One grazed his shoulder but didn't even break his concentration, and the rest he easily deflected as he moved steadily toward the nearest shuttle. He really didn't want to kill them. Not that they didn't deserve to die, but he just didn't want to if he didn't have to. Especially considering the apparent theme of the day. So he took a gamble and, still holding his lightsaber in his right hand, raised his left. As he moved his hand toward the rock ceiling, one of the men rose too.

"Now, you can let me leave and I'll put him down gently, or you can keep fighting me and I drop him. Probably on one of you. What's it going to be?" He used the Force to project his voice, sounding more intimidating than he otherwise would have. Intimidating was good in situations like this. He tapped his foot and lifted the man a little higher, and then, when he got no response, reached out with the Force and picked a second one up of the ground.

One by one, they lowered their blasters and raised their hands. With the Force, he sent the weapons skittering across the floor and far out of their reach. Then, having reached the shuttle, he slowly lowered his hostages to the floor and disappeared inside. The men, too shocked by the display to speak, never made a move to stop him.

---------------

"You sure you can make it?" Tycho asked, his words heavy with concern.

"We can make it. We're almost to the edge of the belt, and as long as we don't get any visitors, we'll be all right. If we do…well…my weapons systems are destined for the scrap heap, so you better stay close by," Jesina replied.

Tycho nodded to himself. "All right. Anything else goes wrong, you find any problems that you didn't notice before, let me know immediately. We'll work something out."

"I copy. _Nightwind_ out."


	23. Answers

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 23: Answers

---------------

Jesina reached the top of the boarding ramp but had to step back as the medical crew was already on their way up. She watched as they moved Iella onto the repulsor stretcher and heard them murmuring about her condition as they backtracked down the ramp and disappeared into the complex with their charge.

She walked slowly down the ramp and saw the Rogues landing some distance away. Then she glanced toward the tunnel that connected the hangar to the main bunker and did a double take. Wedge was standing there as she'd expected, but Mara Jade was standing next to him. Specifically, a very angry looking Mara Jade.

As the pilots alighted from their fighters, Jesina saw Tycho head in her direction. She hung back a moment, waiting for him, and then they approached Wedge together. She could see by the look on his face that he'd noticed that they were short one pilot.

"Where's Corran?" Wedge asked quietly.

"And where's Durron?" Mara asked, not so quietly.

Jesina looked at her sharply. "How did you know he was up there?" The redhead set her lips in a thin line, but didn't answer, so Jesina looked expectantly at Wedge.

He shook his head. "I don't know. She won't tell me." He paused. "Where's Corran?"

"They're both, hopefully anyway, on their way back. Provided they both made it off the asteroid, and out of the belt, for that matter, in one piece."

"Oh, he'd better make it here, because I want to be the one to kill him," Mara replied, teeth clenched.

Jesina glanced uneasily at Tycho. Something very odd was going on here. First Kyp Durron, and now Mara was here ready to tear him limb from limb. She shivered, as much from the cold as from the bad feeling she was getting from this whole situation. "Let's go inside?" she suggested. Tycho saw her shake slightly and put an arm around her shoulders.

---------------

"All right," Wedge said when they were all seated. Well, all but Mara, who leaned against the wall, toying with her blaster in a way that made Tycho feel for Kyp. "What happened?"

Tycho watched him closely. He could see that it was taking all his friend's willpower to remain professional about this when what he was desperate to know what had happened to Iella.

Jesina apparently had noticed as well. "Everything went fine at first – we got knocked around a little on the way in, but we were pretty lucky. We got inside, went through a tunnel, and got to a cavern. And then…things fell apart."

"Literally," Tycho murmured. Jesina frowned at him and he looked properly admonished. He made up for it by telling the next part – Iella's fall, Jesina's near-fall, and Corran's attempt to catch Iella.

Then Jesina opened her mouth to take over again, but closed it as Wedge's comm unit buzzed. He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Antilles."

"General, we have an incoming x-wing and…"

Wedge frowned at the unit. "And what?" he asked testily.

"Well, it looks like the Ugly version of a _Lambda_-class shuttle. The x-wing is hailing as Rogue Nine."

"The shuttle's got to be Durron," Jesina muttered, and Tycho nodded. Wedge indicated with his eyes that he'd heard them.

"Tell Commander Horn to report—" He broke off when Jesina put a hand in front of the comm.

"To his quarters," she said. "Trust me, Wedge."

He gave her a strange look, and heard the deck officer's voice come back over the comm. "Sir?"

She nodded and he returned his attention to the comm unit. "Tell…Commander Horn to report to his quarters and remain there. Tell the shuttle's pilot to report to my office immediately."

Tycho cast a glance in Mara's direction and saw a glint in her eye that told him that Kyp Durron was in for it. "Look, Mara, go easy on him, will you? He's the only reason Iella is still alive."

Wedge shot him a surprised glance, and Tycho took advantage of the short time before Kyp arrived to give Wedge the short version of the rest of their time on the asteroid. He'd just finished telling him about Kyp's departure to go after Corran when the Jedi Knight appeared in the doorway.

By this point Mara was leaning against a cabinet so she'd have a good view of the door. She saw Kyp and her eyes narrowed almost to slits. Kyp saw her at the same time and took a step back. But Mara's gaze – no Force use required – stopped him cold.

Tycho did step back and waited for the explosion. Maybe now they'd find out what was going on. Sure enough. And he didn't have to wait long.

"Where in the name of the Sith do you get off?"

"Mara, let me ex—"

She cut him off. "This oughta be good," she muttered snidely, folding her arms across his chest.

He glowered in return, then sighed and stepped inside the office, looking like a man walking to his own execution. "How much do you know?"

"I know that the galaxy's only Jedi Master went missing and _you_ decided that _no one_ needed to know about it."

In an instant, all eyes were on Kyp. "What happened?" Wedge exclaimed. "From the beginning!" It was his command voice and even Kyp, though not one of his subordinates, knew better than to make him any more angry.

"A couple of months ago," Kyp turned to Mara, "after you came to Master Skywalker with the information about the Councilor killed on Skaloc IV, he went to investigate. He planned to maintain contact with me, but after a couple of weeks I never heard anything more from him."

He paused, and then went on. "I figured he'd gone underground for a reason – that he'd come across something and wasn't able to contact me. But after another couple of weeks with still no word, I went looking. I didn't tell anyone – Han and Leia Solo included – because I didn't want word to get out that he was missing, especially if it was of his own accord. If he was tracking someone and they found out he'd disappeared, it might have tipped them off. So I went after him myself. And then I heard about the Sullustan Senators. I decided, given what little I'd heard from Master Skywalker before he went missing, that the two were more than likely related. And I traced the people responsible for the Sullustans to those clowns on the asteroid."

"So who are they? And who killed the Sullustans? And the Skaloc Councilor?" Mara seemed calmer now, and Tycho wasn't surprised. He was far from being intimately familiar with Mara Jade's methods, but from what he did know, he guessed she'd have done the same. And was probably angry that she'd been denied the chance to.

"They're Imperials; I know that much. I don't know who they're working for; I wasn't with them long enough. I do know that the Uglies that have been flying for them are pirates – independent contractors. They're in it for the credits. And it wasn't a Force-user who was responsible for those deaths – but it was made to look like it was a Force-user. Again, I don't know why. I wasn't there long enough."

"I'm going to kill Cracken. I'm going to shoot him. Several times, as a matter of fact," Wedge muttered under his breath.

"It's not his fault," Kyp defended the Intelligence Director. "This time, anyway. He had no way of knowing what was going on. I was the only one who did, and I didn't tell anyone."

He returned his gaze to Mara. "How did you find out?"

"Because Karrde heard that Luke Skywalker was dead. He's not," she said quickly when she saw their stricken looks. "But someone wanted everyone to believe he was." She sighed.

"And how did you figure I knew? Why not go to Yavin? Talk to Kam Solusar?"

"Because I commed the Academy. And Solusar said you knew where Skywalker was. It wasn't hard to put it all together."

"And then you came here just to yell at me?" Kyp asked.

Jesina snickered and Tycho tried – and failed – to hide a smile. Wedge just massaged his temples and looked tired.

"No, I came to drag you with me to go find Skywalker. I managed to find out a few things, and I plan to make your life miserable along the way."

Kyp looked pained, but didn't have a chance to respond. There was a knock at Wedge's door and a moment later, it slid open. Wes and Hobbie were there, Inyri and Gavin right behind them. "Wedge, there's someone in the base. And Corran went after whoever it is."


	24. What Else?

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 24: What Else?

---------------

Wedge closed his eyes briefly. What else could go wrong? "What happened, exactly?"

"Somebody took a shot at Inyri and I," Hobbie said.

Wedge thought his friend's face looked flushed, but he wasn't sure and didn't care to ask. Whatever was going on there, he was sure he didn't want to know. "Did you see him? Or her?"

Hobbie shook his head. "Came from around a corner. By the time we got there, whoever it was was out of sight. Nothing."

"Get the whole squadron into the briefing room. I want to know where everyone is." He looked at Jesina. "Any chance it's one of your people?"

She looked slightly offended. "No. Someone must have gotten by. I don't know how they could have, but nothing surprises me anymore." She sighed.

"Then get your people together. With Iella down, you're back in charge. For the moment, anyway." Then he glanced at Kyp and Mara. "About Corran…"

"We'll handle him," Mara said, cutting him off. "Trust me, I'll handle him." Without waiting for a response, she turned on her heel, motioning for Kyp to follow her.

Wedge watched her go, wondering who was in more trouble – them, the intruder, or Corran.

---------------

Mara stalked through the corridors, more than a little annoyed at this turn of events. Then she slowed, letting her frustration bleed off through the Force. She wasn't really annoyed. She was worried. Horn had seemed to her to be fairly stable. She'd even confessed to him her concerns that Skywalker might get himself into trouble again, and asked him to keep on eye on the Jedi Master. To know that he'd made the same mistake – or at least was headed in that direction – was disturbing, to say the least.

She stopped for a second and turned to Durron as he caught up with her. "How bad?"

"Hmm?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"How bad is Horn?"

The frown on the Jedi's face deepened. "He's…he's not beyond help. The reason it all started was out of a desire to save Wessiri. But once he started, he didn't level off; he just went deeper. And he almost killed me."

"So, bad."

"Well…he almost killed me. He didn't, and what stopped him was when I told him Wessiri wasn't dead. It didn't take long for him to cool down once he realized I was telling him the truth. And he did seem to regret it – he was afraid of facing everyone."

"So what set him off this time?" she asked, thinking aloud. The question wasn't actually directed at Durron, but he answered anyway.

"Maybe he's trying to make amends. If he was drawing on the Dark Side, I'd have felt it by now, and he's not."

Mara gave him a sideways glance. "You may be smarter than I give you credit for. Though I doubt it."

He frowned, unsure of just how insulting that comment was supposed to be. Then he thought for a moment. "Of course, he's on such shaky ground that his intentions might not matter. He's in a weak spot right now…all it'll take is for something to catch him off guard or for him to perceive something as a serious threat, and he could slip."

She glanced at him again, frowning. Maybe there was a brain to be found somewhere in all that cockiness.

Kyp narrowed his eyes at her. "I did learn something from my mistakes, Mara," he said icily.

"Stay out of my head, Durron."

---------------

Corran slipped around the corner. Finding the person who'd shot at Hobbie and Inyri would be so much easier if he used the Force, but he didn't dare. He'd done too much damage already that way. He probably shouldn't even be doing this.

He definitely shouldn't be doing this. He'd been ordered to remain in his quarters. But he'd heard the shot and Inyri's shout and all he could think about was Borleias and Lujayne Forge. Damned if he was going to let that happen again. If Wedge saw fit to discipline him for that, well, he'd deal with it.

He heard a noise – the soft thud of footsteps – and froze. Where had that come from? Then he heard it again, and his eyes were drawn to the end of the corridor. Without consciously using the Force, he sensed the sudden danger and dropped, rolling across the floor. He came up on one knee, blaster in hand, but didn't fire. The person was already gone.

He sighed. This was getting him nowhere. Slowly, tentatively, he reached out through the Force, trying to sense the intruder. But the first presence he felt was Kyp Durron…and Mara Jade was with him.

"Wonderful," he muttered aloud. He'd been afraid of discussing this with Wedge, and now Mara was here? "Well, you made your bed, Horn," he mumbled to himself. "Now lie in it."

A moment later, though, dealing with Mara Jade was the furthest thing from his mind. He sensed his quarry – and the fact that the intruder had found Durron and Mara. He broke into a run, rounding one corner and then another before they were within sight. "Jade! Durron!"

Neither turned to face him. Instead, they spun in the opposite direction, realizing where the threat was coming from. He sped up, sprinting towards them. Something wasn't right.

---------------

Wedge looked around the briefing room. All the Rogues were there except for Corran, who wasn't answering his comlink. Jesina was too, along with the Intelligence team that had gone to the asteroid and a handful of other agents. One of them, who's name he'd learned was Vayl Lonciez, kept close to Jesina and continued to shoot dirty looks at him, Tycho, Wes, and Hobbie. He wanted to know why, but hadn't been able to get Jesina away from the man for long enough to ask.

He sighed. He couldn't help but feel like they should be doing something, but he couldn't think of what. He wanted to know more about who had shot at Hobbie and Inyri before he sent any of his people out looking for whoever it was. And right now he knew absolutely nothing.

He was hoping that Mara and Durron would let him know if they learned anything – not that he liked the idea of relying on that man for a blasted thing – but they were independent operators and not his responsibility. And so he felt substantially less concern over the fact that they were wandering around the base, but was willing to make use of them just the same.

Glancing around, he noticed that Wes, Hobbie, and Tycho had apparently caught on to the fact that that agent had taken an interest in them. They were talking quietly, but every few minutes would glance in his direction, and then return to their conversation when they realized he was still watching them.

Inyri, Ensa, Duryll, and Teril were sitting together around a table, but none of them seemed to even notice that the others were there. Each wore an equally vacant expression, and Wedge knew that they all wished they were doing something, instead of sitting around like hostages. He guessed that Inyri was feeling that even more than the others, since the intruder had taken a shot at her. He completely understood their frustration, but he wasn't going to change his mind. They had no idea who was here, how many people there were, how they'd gotten past the defenses – and he wasn't doing anything until he either had more information or had no choice.

---------------

Mara felt Horn draw closer to them at the same time as she felt another, unidentified presence in the Force. She heard the Corellian's shouted warning and having been facing in his direction until that moment, spun around as her danger sense flared. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Durron mimic her movements. And she saw nothing.

She heard Horn's footsteps as he ran toward them, and then the intruder appeared. The person wore a dark cloak, almost identical to the one Durron was wearing. The hood was up so she couldn't see the face. But she could see a gloved hand…and the detonator it held. But, at that moment, something else made her turn back to face Horn.

She saw the other Jedi raise a hand and realized in a split second that Durron had been right. Horn's intentions had been noble – she'd felt that – but all it had taken was one immediate threat to push him back into his slide. She yelled out to Durron to handle the would-be bomber as she lunged at Horn.


	25. And the Walls Came Tumbling Down

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 25: And the Walls Came Tumbling Down

---------------

Kyp was already moving toward the intruder when he heard Mara Jade yell. He didn't turn, knowing instinctively what was happening. He could feel it through the Force, and it was exactly what he'd been afraid of. But he didn't have time to worry about that right now. No matter how worried he was about Horn sliding to the Dark Side, the man standing two meters away with a detonator in his hand was a much more important and immediate threat. Besides, Mara seemed content to deal with Horn, and he'd had enough of getting thrown around by the Corellian.

He reached out with the Force, yanking the detonator out of the cloaked man's hand as he lowered his thumb to activate it. Once he had it in his hand, though, he wasn't sure exactly what to do with it. When the would-be bomber took off in the opposite direction, though, his mind was made up. He placed the detonator on the ground, figuring it would be safe with Mara and Horn – however bad Horn might get, he wasn't likely to blow up the base – and broke into a run.

The intruder was nowhere in sight by the time he rounded the corner, so Kyp reached out into the Force, searching for the man's presence. He wasn't far, and he was cornered.

---------------

"Horn!!" Mara shouted into the Jedi's face as she shoved him back, pinning his right hand flat against the wall. "Don't do this again! You don't…need…to do this," she said, struggling to hold him back. He wasn't a large man, but he was strong – he prided himself on it. She was no slouch herself, but Horn was constantly in training just as she was and, out of any of Rogue Squadron's pilots, was one of the few able to match her on pure strength and ability.

Fed up with fighting someone nearly as trained as she was – and more than likely physically stronger than she – Mara stepped back slightly to give herself a little leverage, then hooked her foot behind his ankle. Yanking backward and out, she knocked him off balance and, giving him a hard shove to the side, brought him down to the ground.

She went with him, but managed to catch herself before she actually hit the floor. Kneeling down, she leaned over him, wondering if he was unconscious and thinking that that might not be such a bad thing. No such…luck. His eyes were open now and the Force disturbance that he'd caused when he'd drawn on the Dark Side was gone. He moved her hand off his chest and pushed himself into a sitting position, rubbing the back of his head.

---------------

Wedge headed toward Jesina, determined to find out about that man Lonciez – and something decided to help him along.

He was thrown in her direction as the wall he'd been standing near exploded into the room. He came down on his back – hard – on top of one of the long tables and it collapsed under the combined weight of his body and the blocks of ice that followed him.

He heard more crashes and shouting from the others as his head connected with the table – or something just as hard. He blinked furiously, but his vision continued to blur. Black crept in at the edges and he shook his head, moaning as dizziness and nausea washed over him. His head throbbed as he felt ice chips rain down on his face and his exposed skin and tried to speak.

Only a few unintelligible words made it past his lips. Hands moved over his chest and arms, and he thought he felt someone touch his head. But the blackness was more insistent now, and he closed his eyes, letting it overtake him.

---------------

Kyp's danger sense flared as he drew closer to the intruder, but it didn't give him enough warning to be able to react in time. A second later he heard the explosion, and the intruder's Force signature vanished. He didn't have a chance to think about what that meant, however. A moment after that he was hurled against the wall, large blocks of ice coming down on top of him.

He tried to construct a Force-shield around himself and succeeded – for a while anyway. But after a moment, it faltered under the barrage, and he knew he wouldn't be able to maintain it much longer. No, he couldn't keep this up for long at all. He tried to move away, but didn't get far enough in time.

One of the larger pieces of ice came toward him as the shield he'd constructed gave way. It him squarely in the chest, slamming him down. He never had a chance to shunt away the pain. The impact against his chest slammed his head backward. His head connected solidly with the floor, and he blacked out instantly.

---------------

Mara got to her feet and reached a hand down to help Horn stand up, pausing momentarily when she heard something that sounded a little like thunder. "What in the galaxy…" she started, trailing off as ice fragments began to shower down from the ceiling, the flow growing heavier by the second. Yanking the Corellian to his feet, she yelled, "Run!"

They didn't get very far. A second later she was on the floor flat on her back, meters away from where they'd been. The other Jedi was sprawled across her stomach and legs, face down. They slid across the slick floor, staying in the exact same position, coming to a stop when the reached a corner and her head hit the still-intact wall of ice.

She shunted the pain away through the Force, fighting the dizziness that threatened to overwhelm her, and reached a hand toward Horn's throat to check for a pulse.

---------------

Inyri had been in the process of standing up when the wall more or less imploded, sending ice fragments – and larger chunks – flying in all directions. The force of the blast slammed her back against the wall. Her head cracked against the wall and she sank down to the ground. She put her hand to the back of her head and it came away sticky with blood.

She opened her eyes just in time to see the table in front of her collapse as Wedge fell onto it like a rag doll. She held her hands over her face to shield it from the debris and it felt like an hour before silence fell over the room again.

Slowly, she lowered her hands and looked around. Ensa was on the ground half a meter away, Teril beside him. The girl was slumped over, and Inyri guessed she'd hit her head. On her own right lay Duryll, but he was moving, so she wasn't too concerned. She glanced back toward Ensa and Teril and saw that Ensa was tending to Teril, so she looked to find the others.

Ooryl was at the end of the now-defunct table, pulling himself to his feet. Donos was beside him, helping Gavin up. They'd been the farthest from the blast, and looked like they hadn't suffered much other than a few bruises.

From where she sat, she couldn't see Tycho, Janson…or Hobbie. They'd been relatively close to Wedge – and near the wall that no longer existed.

---------------

Horn didn't move as Mara pressed her fingertips to his throat, but she did feel a pulse. It was weak, but it was there.

Pushing on his shoulder gently – she didn't know how extensive his injuries might be, but from the meter-wide slab of ice across part of his lower back and his right leg, she guessed that he might be pretty badly off – she pulled her legs free and massaged them gently.

After feeling had returned to her legs, she shifted her position and knelt, pushing away the piece of the wall that had landed on the other Jedi and then rolled him slowly onto his back. She leaned down, putting her ear to his mouth, and listened. It was slow, but at least he was breathing.

She ran her hands down his torso and, unconscious though he was, he moved and gasped slightly at a few tender spots – specifically, where the ice slab had landed on him. Then she moved on to each of his legs, noticing a few spots on his right leg that didn't feel quite right. "Probably broken," she murmured, picking up some of the ice chips that had settled to the ground around them. She held the ice in her hand until it melted, and then let the water run over his face.

After a moment, he stirred slightly and blinked a few times. Eyes still closed he asked, "What happened?"

She looked down the corridor – or what was left of it. They weren't completely blocked off from the rest of the base; they'd have to climb over debris that was about a meter and a half high, but there was an opening on top about a meter high that they could climb through. Of course, that was provided Horn could climb, which she wasn't sure about at the moment. "I don't really know."

Her words didn't seem to quite register with him. "Is everyone else okay?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. I hope so."

---------------

Inyri reached toward a chair – still upright, somehow – and pulled herself to her feet. She saw Jesina and one of the NRI agents, the guy who'd been giving Wedge strange looks since he'd walked through the door, leaning over Wedge. A moment later she saw Wes and Hobbie on their knees, Tycho between them, flat on his back on the icy floor.

Hobbie was bleeding from a gash on his forehead, and the hair on the back of Wes' head was matted with blood – but neither of them seemed to notice. Glancing around quickly, she saw that no one had gotten the first aid kit, so she made her way toward it, nearly falling several times because of the debris and the melting ice. Once she got the kit, she did fall, and elected to half-crawl/half-slide across the floor, heading first to Wes, Tycho, and Hobbie.

Deciding that Wes was worse off than Hobbie, no matter how concerned she might be about her boyfriend, she pulled some gauze out and said softly, "You hit your head pretty good," as she squeezed some antiseptic gel onto the gauze. "This is gonna sting."

As she dabbed at the cut, she heard him curse under his breath. "Sorry," she said, but he shrugged, keeping his head steady. Finally, she gave up. "I can't do much more," she apologized, "but I think the bleeding has stopped."

She turned to Hobbie, but he waved her off. "Tycho needs it more than I do."

"You can't even see!" she protested. In response, he wiped at his forehead, smearing the blood, and she rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath. "Men!"

She gave them a few bacta patches and bandages and then moved toward Jesina and Wedge, who looked to be in even worse shape than Tycho.

---------------

After lying on the floor for a few minutes, unmoving, Corran had let Mara help him up. He'd quickly come to the conclusion that his right leg was indeed broken – in a couple of places. Grimacing and shunting away the pain, he'd leaned heavily on her as they limped down the corridor, to the wall of ice partially blocking the way. She turned, regarding him skeptically. "Can you make it?"

He made a face. "If I have to."

She circled him and he felt her fingers on the back of his head. Then she came back around to face him and said, "The bleeding isn't stopping. We need to get a first aid kit, and you need that leg set." She paused. "I can go alone."

He shook his head. "No. I'll go. We don't know what exactly happened, who else might be hurt – or if whoever…Durron was chasing is still around."

"He's not," she said softly, turning back to the wall of ice. "Are you sure you can manage?"

He looked up, gauging the distance and looking for potential foot- and handholds. He'd have to drag his right leg – it'd be useless for climbing and if he tried to use it, he would probably only hurt himself more. "I can make it."

"Without the Force?"

He glanced away, toward what was left of the wall. He'd been wondering when she was going to bring that up, and was surprised she'd waited this long. "I'll have to shunt away the pain."

"Nothing more than that," she said firmly. He nodded and felt her hand on his shoulder. "_Nothing_ more than that. Or you wait here."

"I'm not stupid, Jade," he said as he turned around.

She looked a little sad. "I never said you were. I just don't like seeing good people make mistakes that they don't have to make." She paused. "Just like I was worried about Skywalker when I left Yavin."

He met her eyes, and the fire that normally blazed in them seemed a little dull. She'd been concerned that Luke would try to do too much too fast following his time with the Reborn Emperor. Thinking about that, he understood what she was trying to say. He turned back to the wall and said, "I'll go first. You might have to give me a boost. Climbing with three limbs isn't exactly the easiest thing I've ever done."

---------------

Hobbie looked over at Inyri, helping Jesina and her partner – if that was what he was – with Wedge. She'd seemed upset when he'd shrugged off her help, but he'd told the truth. Tycho had hit his head harder and unless he missed his guess, he had a couple of broken ribs. How he and Wes had only gotten a few cuts was beyond him. _Maybe the Force decided that I had it bad enough when I was here the last time_, he thought.

Aloud he asked, "How is he?"

"Bacta's about to become Wedge's very good friend," Jesina replied tightly. She turned slightly. "How's Tycho?"

He could see her worry on her face. No matter how close they'd all been back then – or were now, for that matter – Tycho was still her best friend and her first concern. Wedge was a distant second. And he wasn't sure where Wes fell in that. "He'll be all right. It's gonna hurt him to breathe for a while, but he'll be okay. We need to get them both into bacta, though."

He glanced around. With Wedge and Tycho down, he and Wes were the ranking Rogue, but Jesina outranked them both. "What do we do?"

In response, she pulled out her comlink. "You there, Jade?"

After a moment, they heard Mara's voice. "I'm here. Horn's with me."

"You both all right? What about Durron?"

"Been better…Horn's got a fractured leg, but I'm all right. Durron was on his own. Don't know where he is."

"You know what hit us?"

There was another long pause. "Can't say for sure, but I can make a guess."

Hobbie saw Jesina glance toward him and roll her eyes. "Give me a guess then," she muttered.

"We ran into whoever took a shot at Klivian and Forge. He had a detonator in his hand, but Durron got it away from him. Right now, it's probably buried under a meter or so of snow and ice. But that doesn't mean he didn't have anything else on him. Near as I can tell, he's dead now…" she trailed off for a moment, then said, "You can figure it out."

"Yeah. Thanks. We're going to head to the med center. We've got a few injuries, no fatalities."

"See you there. I'll get Horn there, and look for Durron on the way."

Jesina pocketed her comlink and looked at her partner. "Vayl, you, Malat and Tekha, see if the path is clear to the med center. Meryk, Tera, Kilas, Antyr – help get the Rogues on their feet."

Hobbie watched as Vayl stood, drawing his blaster, and motioned to Malat and Tekha. As they left, the other four nodded and moved toward Teril, Gavin, and the rest of the pilots. Most of the Rogues had sustained some kind of injury, but not the Intel team. Jesina's crew had been lucky – they'd ducked behind a table when the blast hit.


	26. Responsibilities

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 26: Responsibilities

---------------

Mara was glad Horn wasn't a large man. By the time they made it to the med center – with no sign of Durron along the way – she was practically carrying him. They were the last to arrive.

Along the way, she'd come to the conclusion that the intruder had indeed set off the explosion – and that he'd been somewhere in between her and Horn and the Rogues in the briefing room at the time. They'd had to go straight through the worst of the damage, and so the journey had taken much longer than she'd hoped.

Janson had taken Horn away from her the moment she'd walked in the door. A second later the room had started to sway, and she'd felt hands pushing her into a chair.

She'd seen someone's face swim across her vision, but couldn't make out who it was.

Her last thought before she slumped forward was, _Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought._

---------------

Jesina looked up as Mara stumbled through the doorway with Corran Horn in tow and no Kyp Durron to be seen. She saw Wes put an arm around Corran's back, taking away Mara's burden, and realized a second later that the redheaded smuggler might have been leaning on the Corellian for support as much as he'd been relying on her. She saw Mara start to sway. "Catch her!" she called out, climbing over a repulsor chair in an attempt to reach the woman before she hit the floor.

Donos caught Mara and pushed her into a chair, kneeling down in front of her as her eyes closed and she leaned forward. Jesina reached her a second later, as Mara's forehead hit the sniper's shoulder. She ran her hand lightly over the back of Mara's head and felt a large bump, but no blood.

"We need some help over here!" she yelled, glancing over her shoulder at the packed room. Every table had someone on it, and Mara had ended up in the last empty chair.

She stepped back and ran a hand through her hair as a Two-One-Bee droid bustled over her and cut in front of her. Tycho and Wedge were in bacta tanks, Horn was on a gurney, as were Teril Seylien and Duryll Seco. The other tables and one bacta tank were occupied by a few of her agents who'd been in the corridor when the explosion had hit. The others were sitting or standing around tending to their own cuts and bruises or waiting for attention for the injuries they couldn't reach on their own.

She looked around. Wes and Hobbie had been taken care of, and she'd finally given in to the EmDee torture-droid to let it look at her. Most of the others were still waiting, or were relatively uninjured. And there were a number of people she hadn't been able to contact – not the least of whom was Kyp Durron.

She threaded her way through the pilots and agents in the room into the back, where Iella was still in bacta, along with Wedge and Tycho. She needed to find out how long each of them was going to be out of commission. She knew Iella would be out for a while yet – they'd only been back from the asteroid for a few hours – but Wedge and Tycho weren't _that_ badly off. Then she needed to put someone in charge while she was gone, and then organize people to search for the missing.

Time to get moving.

---------------

Wes caught Jesina's arm as her foot slid out from under her. The ice chips that had fallen had melted and started to re-freeze, making the floor slick. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hobbie steady Inyri as well. She let him for a moment, but then pulled away, and Hobbie looked hurt.

He turned his attention back to Jesina, asking with his eyes if she knew what was going on. She shook her head slightly, and then turned her attention back to the corridor ahead

After a few moments, she came to a stop. Barely avoiding sliding into her, he sidestepped and looked ahead. "You think this is where Jade and Corran came through?" They'd waited until Mara had come to before they left. She'd told them about the climb they'd made, and where she guessed Durron had been when the bomb had gone off. From the sound of it, he'd likely been close to ground zero.

She nodded. "Durron must be buried somewhere between here and the briefing room."

He glanced at his chrono. "It's been nearly two hours. He could be…"

"Possibly," Jesina murmured thoughtfully. She turned around to face them. "Hobbie, you and Inyri take the left side of the corridor. We'll take the right."

Wes frowned. There was something strange about her tone that unnerved him. It was all business, completely void of emotion. He'd heard her like that before, but not often. "Let's go."

---------------

Corran blinked against the light. "Wher'm I?"

"You are in the medical center on Echo Base, Commander," a droll, computerized voice responded.

"What…I…" he tried to sit up but felt hands – hard, metal hands – on his chest, pushing him back down. He felt something being placed on his face and turned his head, moaning at the sharp pains that shot through it.

"We are transferring you to a bacta tank, commander," the voice said again. "Breathe deeply, sir."

He did as he was told, the pain inhibiting his ability to think enough to do anything else, and the sounds in the background began to fade away into nothing.

---------------

Jesina dug through the ice. It was slow going, but they had no other way – and no choice if Durron was to have any chance of surviving.

She knew Wes was bothered by her current attitude. He'd been shooting her strange looks the whole time, but she didn't care. She didn't like being hit close to home like this.

Not only that. There was no way someone had gotten into the base without their knowledge. Because of the fact that the whole thing was carved from ice, the entrances were few and far between – and continually monitored. None of their guards or watchmen had been injured or in any way incapacitated, which meant that the only way anyone could have gotten in would have been if they'd simply been unnoticed. And her people were too well trained for that. It had to have been an inside job.

Whether that meant that one of her people had let someone into the base or that the bomber was someone who'd been inside the whole time didn't matter to her. One of her people had betrayed them, and that was what had mattered. This was her responsibility. These people were her responsibility.

Forge's shout kept her from beating herself up any further. "He's here!"

Another of her responsibilities.

---------------

Hobbie dropped bodily into a chair. Seven hours since the bomb had gone off. Wedge, Tycho, and Corran were all out of bacta – premature removals, all, but the additional agents they'd found – and Durron, for that matter – who'd been caught in the explosion needed the tanks more than they did.

Wedge was in a back room, sitting in a repulsor chair, talking to Corran, who was sitting in a repulsor bed. Neither was happy about their current position, but had been threatened enough by the med droids that they'd both given in.

He looked over at Jesina, who was pacing back and forth. Something was up with her; he wasn't sure what, but he couldn't remember ever seeing her so agitated.

Wes had noticed, too. He'd been watching Jesina steadily since they'd made it back to the med center, only occasionally looking away when she looked in his direction.

He shifted his attention to Inyri. He'd tried to give her a hand a few times when they were out looking for Durron, but she'd pulled away. He understood – she didn't want people finding out – but it was starting to get to him just the same.

He sighed and leaned back, resting his head against the wall, and closed his eyes. That was something he could deal with another time. Right now, all he wanted was to sleep. Despite the constant bustle of people coming in and out of the med center, the simple fact that he was seated and unmoving was enough to lull him toward unconsciousness.

---------------

Wedge looked at Corran, who was examining his hands like he'd never seen them before in his life. "Feel like talking?"

"Honestly?" Corran asked, shaking his head.

"Honestly," Wedge repeated, chuckling a bit despite the circumstances – and then regretting it when his chest felt like it was on fire.

"Not really." Corran shook his head. "I screwed up. I don't know what to say. I just exploded. Iella was hurt and it was within my power to save her. I couldn't just sit there."

"But you should have."

"I know." He shook his head again. "And the best part is that it didn't matter. Because I never reached her. And even if I'd just sat there, Durron would have taken care of her anyway."

"You made a call, and it was a bad one. It happens, though, and you have to accept that and move on."

"But it's worse for me," Corran said. "It's more dangerous for a Jedi to make a mistake, especially when it involves the Dark Side."

"I'm not going to argue that, Corran. Mainly because I don't know enough about it. I saw what Luke went through after the whole episode with the reincarnation of the Emperor. And the whole galaxy knows what Dark Jedi – Sith, whatever – can do, thanks to the Emperor and Vader and Kyp Durron. But I do know that you're human. You make mistakes. And if you don't try to move on, you'll drive yourself insane."

"It's not that easy, though," the Jedi protested.

"Why?"

"You couldn't understand." He looked away.

Wedge nudged his repulsor chair forward. "Try me."

"It's…I never bought into what Luke said. When he was first training, Master Yoda told him 'Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.' He told us that when I was training to be a Jedi, but I didn't believe it. I equated it with being a criminal. You could change, if you really wanted to. Inyri Forge is an example of that – you are, too, really. And then there are the Imps who served the Alliance or the Republic loyally after they turned. People could change if they wanted to. It didn't occur to me that the Force – the Dark Side – would be any different."

He paused, studying his hands again. "It's not, though. The feeling of using that power is addictive – it's more like being a glitbiter than a criminal. You…you need it. It draws you in and it doesn't let you go and it's the hardest thing in the galaxy to escape it."

Wedge remained silent as Corran struggled with his thoughts. This was not the first time in his life that he'd wished he understood more about the Force, and he was certain it wouldn't be the last. It frustrated him to no end to be unable to help a man who was his friend – and his responsibility, as a member of the squadron.

"I'm not free of it – still, even after what happened. I was the closest to Hobbie and Inyri when that person took a shot at them. I never intended to use the Dark Side – I didn't want to use the Force at all. But at that moment it just…overwhelmed me sounds like I'm trying to find an excuse, but that's the best word I can find."

Wedge weighed his words carefully. "I'm not going to pretend that I know what you're going through. I figure I can imagine how hard it might be – we've all had our own moral struggles." He rolled his eyes. "Force knows I've had my share. You need to get through it your own way. If that means taking time away from the squadron, meeting Luke when Mara and Durron find him and bring him back, then so be it, and we'll accommodate you as far as is necessary. I'm not going to ask you to stay; I'm not going to ask you to leave. Do what you need to do."


	27. Capable

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 27: Capable

---------------

Inyri stopped short as she walked out of her quarters and nearly into Wes. He was practically bouncing in place, and she looked around quickly for any practical joke that might be headed her way. Not seeing anything, she looked back at his face. "What?" He'd been acting like an adult since the bombing – she should have known it wouldn't last.

"You and Hobbie, huh?"

She gave him a withering look, but wondered where he'd gotten that information. "No. Not me and Hobbie." Then she shook her head. "Who told you that?" Of all the people in the galaxy, Wes was the last person she wanted to know. And the last she'd expected to figure it out. Maybe Janson was smarter than she gave him credit for. Nah.

He frowned at her. "No one told me. Any fool can see it."

"Well, a fool you are, so…." She trailed off and started to walk away, but he stepped in front of her again.

"I'm serious, Inyri. Anybody who looks at him can see how much he cares about you. And you aren't exactly hiding how you feel, either." He _was_ being serious. She could see it in his eyes. Probably out of concern for Hobbie.

"We're not together, Janson," she said, her voice deliberately icy. "So drop it."

"No." He studied her thoughtfully for a second and crossed his arms. "Why?"

She started. "What?"

"Why? Why aren't you together? Like I said, anybody can see he's…interested. And you can't tell me you aren't."

"We aren't, Janson. I don't have to explain why to you, of all people." She turned and went to sidestep around him but his next words stopped her cold.

"He's my best friend, Inyri. Don't hurt him."

She whirled around to face him again. "Don't hurt him?" she echoed, face red with anger. "Don't hurt him, huh? You want to know why we're not together? Fine. Because I've been hurt too many times before and I'm not about to get involved with someone I already know is capable of—" She broke off, hand flying to her mouth, eyes wide. "I have to go."

"No." Janson grabbed her, hands on both her arms. "Capable of what, Inyri?"

She put up a brief struggle but gave up. However immature he might be, Janson took great pride in his body – too much, usually – and kept himself in good shape. Not that he wouldn't have had one up on her even if he'd been in terrible shape. "You're hurting me."

He shook his head, his face an impassive mask. "I'm not holding you that tight. Capable of what, Inyri?"

"Let me go, Major." She was shaking, and he could see the tears in her eyes.

Slowly, he released her and stepped back. He didn't need her answer anyway. The look on her face was answer enough. "You know I need to go to Wedge with this."

"No!" She was openly crying now. "Please, Wes. Don't. It's – everything's fine. We worked everything out."

He hesitated. She was serious about not wanting him to go to Wedge. But if he was right about this – and he was positive that he was – Wedge should know. "I have to, Inyri. You know that." Not that it would be easy for him. Hobbie was his best friend, and he didn't want to think about what Wedge was going to do. "I'm sorry."

She blinked back the tears and nodded. "I need to go," she whispered.

He nodded and watched her walk away.

---------------

Hobbie looked up as Wedge entered the mess, one of the few places undisturbed by the explosion, with Wes a few steps behind him. Wedge looked angry. Wes just looked…resigned was the best word Hobbie's mind could come up with. After a brief pause, presumably to find him, they headed in his direction.

He swallowed, knowing instinctively what this was about before they even reached his side. He looked quickly at Inyri, sitting at the end of the table with Teril and Gavin, and saw that she wouldn't meet his eyes. She watched Wedge and Wes for a moment before shifting her gaze to the floor.

Wedge was standing beside his table now. "My office now, Major," he said in a low voice that left absolutely no room for argument.

Hobbie stood slowly, glancing at Wes for a moment, who was looking back at him, apologetically but unsympathetically. He didn't know how Wes had found out, but he obviously had and had gone to Wedge with it. He shook his head slightly in an attempt to tell him that he didn't hold it against him, and followed Wedge out.

---------------

Wedge sat down behind his desk, folding his arms across his chest, and leaned back in the chair. Hobbie stood stiffly in front of him, trying to remember when, if ever, he'd last felt this uncomfortable with this man. He couldn't think of any other time.

"Wes was…heckling, I suppose is the best word, Inyri today, about you – asking her if the two of you were involved." Hobbie opened his mouth but Wedge held up a hand. "I don't care if you are or not." He paused and reconsidered. "Well, maybe I do, but not at the moment."

"Inyri told him no, and wouldn't explain why – and told him that she didn't have to explain why to him. At which point he reminded her that you're his best friend and told her not to hurt you." He studied Hobbie for a second. "You know what she said then?"

"No, sir," Hobbie said, wondering again when he'd last been so formal with Wedge when it was just the two of them. He swallowed hard again. This wasn't going exactly how he'd expected.

"She told him that she'd been hurt in the past and wouldn't get involved with someone who she already knew was, and I quote, 'capable of' and then stopped, and started crying." He stopped speaking and looked at his friend expectantly. "You have any idea what she almost said?"

"No, sir," he replied again, just barely able to continue to meet his CO's eyes.

"I don't believe you for a second. Wes has never been a very good liar, and you were always terrible at it. Which is why I could never understand why he involved you in his escapades. Every time, you were the dead giveaway."

"I don't know what she was going to say, sir," Hobbie said, maintaining the formality.

"Fine. I don't know for sure, but it sure seems to me like she was going to say something along the lines of not getting involved with someone she knew was capable of hurting her. You have any idea why might say something like that?"

"Yes, sir." He was shaking now, the weight of what was happening resting heavily on his shoulders.

"Feel like telling me?" Wedge cocked his head to one side, studying the other man.

"Honestly, no, sir."

"Stop calling me sir," Wedge muttered. "You know, she nearly killed Tycho and I when we asked her if you hit her. I _know_ you know about that, by the way, so don't bother pretending you don't know what I'm talking about. I really believed her that you hadn't."

"I didn't, Wedge."

Wedge regarded him skeptically, eyebrow raised. "You're going to tell me that _now_?" he asked, slightly incredulous.

"I didn't hit her. I almost did, which is about as bad. I was angry at you and Tycho about that blasted sim you made me run and she tried to calm me down and I couldn't see straight because I was so mad, and I sure as Sith could think straight. She told me to calm down and I turned around and swung at her. I managed to pull it just in time, but…." He stopped speaking, out of breath from having told the whole story without pausing at all.

---------------

Wedge leaned back in his chair, arms still crossed. He hadn't expected this. He was glad that Hobbie hadn't actually hit Inyri – for any number of reasons – but he wasn't sure that this wasn't, as he'd just said, almost as bad. "Has anything like this happened since?" Wedge asked.

"No. You haven't made me relive Hoth since then," Hobbie retorted. Then his eyes widened and he looked away.

Wedge was taken aback. Hobbie had a point. He couldn't imagine his friend _ever _hitting a woman, no matter how upset. But thinking back to the day this had happened, he remembered wondering if the sim had pushed Hobbie over the edge. From the looks of it, it – they – had come dangerously close to that. "We made a mistake," he admitted.

Hobbie didn't hide his surprise – not that any effort he might have made could have been successful. "Excuse me?" he asked, blinking.

"I said we made a mistake. We screwed up. It was Jesina's idea to run you in a Hoth sim, but I don't think what we did was exactly what she had in mind. And Iella thought it would be cruel, but I didn't listen to her. We made a mistake. And while I'm not about to take responsibility for what you did, it puts it in a different light."

He paused. "I could take any number of disciplinary actions against you," he said, "and I want to make certain that you're aware of that. But I'm not. I'm going to consider what happened as extraneous circumstances and simply move on. If it happens again, though, not only will I have no choice but to take action, but I'll turn you over to Gavin myself."

Hobbie cracked a smile at that, and Wedge just barely managed to hide his own. Gavin was easily the most protective of Inyri out of all of the Rogues. That wasn't to say that the others weren't protective of her.

"That's not to say you won't have to answer to anyone else," Wedge said, voicing Hobbie's thoughts.

"I know. Thank you, sir," he replied, reverting back to formality.

"Enough already," Wedge muttered. He'd heard the word 'sir' more times in the last week – between Corran and Hobbie, mostly – than he had throughout the rest of his career. From the squadron, anyway. "Get out of here."

Hobbie had one foot out the door when Wedge called him back. "Yeah?"

"I'll tell Wes to lay off you and Inyri," he said. "What you two do or don't do is your business. And I'll try to keep them from starting one of their betting pools, but I don't know how successful I'll be. For the record, though…I think you both could do a lot worse."

---------------

Hobbie knocked nervously on Inyri's door. He heard a muffled, "Just a minute," from within the room. Even through the door, he could tell that her voice sounded strange. He waited, fidgeting and moving from foot to foot, until she opened it.

He stepped back, surprised at her appearance. She'd obviously been crying and hadn't cared enough to try to hide it – or had known she wouldn't be successful if she did. Her face was red and streaked with tears. He guessed she'd been lying down – her hair was mess and her jumpsuit was creased and wrinkled. She had a tissue in her hand and was dabbing at the corners of her eyes.

He slipped past her and into the room, letting the door slide closed behind her. Then, even as she tried to step back away from him, he pulled her close and put his arms around her. "It's okay."

She buried her face in his shoulder and he tightened his grasp on her trembling body as she shook her head. He felt her hair brush against his face and strained to here as she mumbled, "No, it's not. I didn't mean to say anything. He just made me so mad and I just lost it. Janson's good for that, you know."

"Yeah, he is." After a moment he stepped back, keeping his arms around her. "We need to talk about that."

"I know. I didn't mean it but…."

He cut her off. "Inyri, I think you did."

She shook her head. "No. Wes just made me angry. I wasn't thinking."

"Kind of like me that day?" he asked gently, and she nodded. "Inyri, when people get angry they do things they wouldn't normally do and they say things they wouldn't normally say. A lot of times what they say is true, though – even if they don't realize it. You wouldn't have said that if you didn't feel that way at all."

"Hobbie, I'm dating you, remember?" She leaned back against his arms so she could see his face more clearly. "I wouldn't be if I really thought that."

"So you aren't at all afraid of me?" he asked.

She hesitated just a moment before saying, "No."

But that moment was long enough to convince him that he was right. "Inyri, we need to talk. You need to tell me the truth." He led her over to her bed and sat down, pulling her down with him.

She looked away. "Hobbie, you almost hit me. What do you expect?"

Her sudden turnaround hit him like a slap in the face. He'd been right, but he hadn't expected to be _that_ right. He expected something more along the lines of 'maybe you're right.' Not 'what do you expect.' "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to hurt you. Besides…." She trailed off and shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I'm never going to completely trust anyone. I've been through too much for that, and I've gotten used to the idea. So I need to accept it if I'm ever going to be happy." She smiled through the tears still in her eyes. "I may be screwed up, but at least I know it."

He tried to smile but couldn't quite manage. "Inyri, I know you have problems trusting people. I wasn't around you before you joined the Rogues. But I've heard a lot about how you met them and what you did to help them. I know your past. And I know you don't trust easily. And I know that what happened between you and I didn't go a long way toward helping. I've told you that. And I don't expect you to trust me suddenly, overnight. But I hope that I can get you to trust me, somehow."

"Hobbie, I'm not going anywhere. No, I don't completely trust you. But I don't think I'll _ever_ completely trust _anybody_. And yes, right now, whenever I'm with you, the fact that you almost hit me is in the back of my mind. I know that there's an explanation – you went a little crazy. And I know that it's not your fault. But that doesn't make it go away."

"What can I do to make it go away? Inyri, you told Wes you wouldn't get involved with someone capable of hurting you." He paused. "Well, you started to anyway. So why are you?"

"Because _everyone_ is capable of hurting _everyone_ else. You may not believe that, but I do. I come from a different world than you do, Hobbie. And its a different world in more ways than you could ever understand. Where I come from – and I don't just mean Kessel; I mean the whole lifestyle I had before the Rogues – people like Booster Terrik are as nice as you get. And Booster can be one mean bastard if he wants to be. He was on Kessel for part of the time I was there. He can be so cold. But he's like a father to Wedge and he'd die for him or Mirax in a heartbeat. Everyone has two sides and for a lot of people you don't see both of them. But everyone does. And everyone is capable of turning on anyone if they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Force knows we have a lot of wrong places and wrong times, Hobbie." She was no longer crying now.

He was listening intently to everything she said, wondering if she ever talked to any of the others, even Gavin, like this. Probably not, he decided, and felt lucky that she was confiding in him these thoughts, because he knew it had to be hard for her.

She stood, growing restless, and began to pace across the floor. "Hobbie, you have to take what I can give. And you have to give me time."

"That I can do," he said softly, biting his lip.

"Can you?" she asked. She'd never poured her heart out like this to anyone before and was kicking herself for doing it now. To her, it was like getting hit by a blaster bolt in the side and then leaving that side wide open for an enemy to exploit the weakness. "I know it's a lot to ask of you."

"You can ask me anything. Force, Inyri! I'm in love with you." He froze as the words came out. He wasn't surprised by the sentiment. He'd warred with himself over what, exactly, he was feeling. What surprised him was that he said it. He hadn't intended to. He'd wanted to wait until Inyri seemed more secure in what was happening between them.

It surprised her, though. Her eyes went wide and she dropped bodily into the chair across from him and just stared. Finally, after a long moment of silence punctuated by the darkening of the room as a cloud moved gradually between them and the sun – probably bringing yet another storm – she asked softly, as if slightly afraid, "What did you say?"

He chuckled, a little at her stunned expression and a little to cover his own nervousness. "I said I love you."

She stared at him, blinking rapidly as her brain tried to process what her ears had just heard. "You…you do?" was all she could manage to say, and she blushed furiously.

He nodded slowly. "I didn't even mean to say it now. I didn't want to put any pressure on you. And I don't want you to feel like you have to say it back…." He trailed off, not wanting to make things more awkward than they already were.

"I…I don't know what to say," she murmured. "Hobbie, I don't think I…."

He silenced her by pressing a finger to her lips. "Shh. Don't say anything. I don't expect you to feel the same way now. Weren't we just talking along those lines a minute ago?"

"Yes, but…."

"No," he said gently. "Nothing's changed from a few minutes ago. You have a lot to work through."

"Yeah," she mumbled. "I guess."

"It's okay. Please, Inyri. Take your time."

She nodded. "I really do care about you."

"I know. Otherwise you wouldn't have been crying when I got here. Unless, of course, you were crying over some other dashing Rogue."

She grinned. "Yeah. Janson told me that he's in love with Jesina and that I have no chance."

"I almost buy that," Hobbie replied, glad to have been able to bring a smile to her face, even if it was just her trademark sarcastic smirk.

"No kidding," Inyri joked. "I think it's obvious to everyone but them."

"I'm pretty sure they know it too. They've got some problems of their own to work out, stuff from years ago."

"Speaking of problems," she began but hesitated, "I guess Wes went to Wedge?"

"Yeah, but it's all right. Wedge made it very clear that he could get me in trouble but isn't going to – unless it happens again. But in that case, I think he plans on leaving it to Gavin to decide what to do with me."

"He'd break you in half," she replied, laughing.

He grinned ruefully, but inwardly wore a broad smile induced simply by hearing her laughter. "I know." He sobered after a moment, though, and asked, "Are we all right?"

She smiled. This time it was a genuine smile, full of affection rather than sarcasm. Then she rose slowly out of the chair and advanced on him. "I'd say we are." She straddled his legs, sitting on his lap, and kissed him gently.

As he leaned back onto the bed, pulling her with him, he smiled and returned the kiss, glad that they were both in better moods than when he'd come in here.


	28. Evacuation and Conversation

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

**A Note:** The conversation between Wedge and Corran was influenced by a brief conversation I had with McEwok about revenge. And I apologize in advance, because this chapter kind of got away from me. I'll get back on track next time though. No more strange tangents.

---------------

Chapter 28: Evacuation and Conversation

---------------

"We're going home," Wedge said. "We've been recalled to Coruscant." He looked around at his mostly-recovered squadron.

Tycho's ribs were still healing – he'd refused to go into bacta any more than necessary. Corran still couldn't really walk, though it wasn't the Jedi's physical health that Wedge was concerned about. Wedge himself had a sore back, but was otherwise feeling better.

"They'll be sending a Corellian Corvette to pick us up tomorrow afternoon. Several shuttles will come down, as well as transports; Command wants all base personnel and New Republic property removed. Apparently, they feel our usefulness here has ended. They're afraid of another attack that might further weaken the structural integrity of the base."

"So we're evacuating?" Inyri asked.

"More or less, since we don't know how the bomber got into the base. Pack up and be ready to leave by 1400 tomorrow. We'll be flying out; the intelligence personnel will be shuttled out and the equipment will be moved by transport."

He looked at Wes, Tycho, and Hobbie in turn. "Get the feeling we've done this before."

---------------

Mara looked Horn over. She was getting used to his defeated stature – strange as it seemed on a man as prideful as he typically was. But now he actually looked thinner, like he'd lost muscle tone. Probably a result of being restricted to bed rest, she decided, but it was odd just the same.

"You know, the longer you dwell on this, the more difficult you're going to make it for everyone – especially yourself. Because the longer you think about your failures, the easier it will become for you to convince yourself that you can't make up for it. And that will just increase the likelihood that you slide back to where you don't want to be."

"I know that, Mara. But knowing you have to do something doesn't make it easy," he replied testily.

She scowled at him. "You are the most stubborn man alive, Horn. If you want to do it, you can. The only thing stopping you is that it's easier to say you can't do it, and that's why the Dark Side wins. It's not stronger. It's just easier."

"You know me better than that, Jade," he shot back. "I've never been one to take the easy way out."

She nodded, pleased that he was starting to show signs of his old self. He was getting frustrated, but she didn't feel any anger emanating from him – definitely a good thing. "You're right. I do know you, and that's not how you are – which is why I can't understand why you're doing it now."

Then she turned and left, leaving him to think over things for himself. Hopefully, she'd planted a few seeds in his mind. Given time and the right motivation – say, a couple of fiery Corellian women more than willing to put him in his place – he'd snap out of it.

---------------

"We're leaving," Mara said, sticking her head through Wedge's doorway. A moment later her body followed, and then Kyp entered.

"You're not heading back to Coruscant with us?" Wedge asked, not entirely surprised.

She shook her head. "I just got a message from Karrde, routed through about a thousand checkpoints. He's got something on Skywalker, and I want to take advantage of it. With Horn on the rocks, the last thing we need is for something to happen to Skywalker."

"You talk to him?" Wedge asked. He and Corran hadn't really spoken since that day in the Med Center. The Jedi had been withdrawn, doing little more but sit by whatever bed or bacta tank Iella had been in – bacta, most of the time.

"He seems to be doing all right. Looks like he's back on solid ground, for the most part. I think everything will be more or less all right once Wessiri wakes up and knocks some sense into him." She offered him a hint of a smile. "Keep an eye on him, okay?"

Wedge nodded. Kyp stepped back, and Mara turned to go. "Jade?"

She glanced over her shoulder. "Antilles?"

"Bring Luke back in one piece, all right? He told me he'd make it to my wedding if it killed him."

"Just so long as you don't expect me to make an appearance."

---------------

"Is that everything?" Jesina shouted over the din in the south bay. She was back to directing the Intelligence personnel as they loaded up the transports. Her resignation seemed to have been unofficially postponed by Iella's injury.

The truth was, especially in light of recent events, she didn't trust anyone else to run the show. And she'd be glad to hand the whole mess off to Cracken the moment she set foot on Coruscant.

"The entire medical bay is cleared out, except for what's needed for Iella," Vayl told her. "Sleeping quarters have been emptied, and the monitoring equipment is loaded onto the first transport. Mess hall has been emptied – all remaining food has been packed up. They're finishing up in the lounge and moving the heavy equipment from the hangar. Other than that, I think we're set."

"The Rogues ready to leave?"

"They're about to get their clearance."

"Give it to them. And tell them to get ready to move Iella." Wedge's fiancé was still under constant medical attention. She was now spending more time out of the bacta tank than in, but she hadn't yet regained consciousness.

She glanced around. "I can't wait to leave this place."

---------------

"How's she doing?"

Corran looked up when he heard his CO's voice. "Her breathing's better, but other than that there's been no change." He'd been sitting by Iella's side since she'd been brought up to the ship, and she had yet to so much as move.

"She'll be all right."

"She'd be all right now if I hadn't prevented Kyp from going with her."

Wedge lowered himself into a chair. "From what Kyp told me, he didn't have the strength left to do much more than he did."

"I might have been able to help him, though."

"I didn't think healing was your strong suit."

Corran shrugged. "It's not. But I know enough."

"You need to get past this."

The Jedi stood and turned away. "Do you have any idea how many times I've heard that?" he asked. "From you, Durron, Jade…" He shook his head, thinking back to his last conversation with Mara, right before she'd left.

"Well, you can add Mirax to that list as soon as we get back. And Iella, once she wakes up."

Corran managed a slight smile. He'd give anything to have Iella standing here now, slapping him around, instead of lying still in the repulsor bed where she was. "Have you ever made a mistake like this?"

"I chased down the people responsible for my parents' deaths, with a little help from Booster. You already know that."

"Yeah, but do you consider that a mistake?"

Wedge shrugged. "Some people would. You, Luke…" He trailed off. "Do I?" He shook his head. "No. Maybe it's the way I was brought up…maybe it's who I know, what I did later. But people pay for what they did. Most times, there's a fine line between justice and revenge, and when you deal with certain types of people, I don't know if there's a line at all."

He was silent for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I consider myself to be a principled person, and I'd say the same for Tycho, Wes, Hobbie…everyone in the squadron, really. Doesn't mean we're immune to the desire for revenge, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Was what I did about justice? No. It was about revenge. But did those people deserve to die for what they did? I think so. Most people would probably agree. My parents weren't their only victims. So, in a way, was it justice? Maybe. Not that I saw it that way at the time. Justice never crossed my mind."

"Look at Tycho. When he joined the Alliance, it was because he wanted the Empire to pay for what they'd done. He had other reasons, sure – even when he'd joined the Empire, he knew it was corrupt; he was looking for a way to bring about change. So there was that. But it wasn't about some noble desire to seek justice for those that the Empire hurt. It was primarily, at that moment, about revenge. Would you say his joining was a mistake?"

Corran shook his head, unsure where his CO was going with this. "No."

"Now look at what you did. That whole thing started with you wanting to save Iella. You weren't looking for revenge, or justice, or any variation thereof. You look at it that way, you're intentions were more noble than mine or Tycho's."

"Yeah, but it spiraled out of control from there."

"It did," Wedge agreed. "But look at it like this. Those men wouldn't have let you get away alive. Whatever you were thinking at the time, they probably would have ended up dead."

"You know," Corran said suddenly, "Mara did a little demonstration when she first came to Yavin. And then she said that a blaster was more fair than a lightsaber, because blasters have stun settings and lightsabers either kill or dismember a person." He shook his head. "And the Jedi, the peacekeepers, carry lightsabers."

Wedge nodded. Mara had been right. Corran did seem better than he'd been lately. "It's all in how you look at it. I realize that Jedi have to be more aware of what they're thinking when they act. But…I guess maybe I just have a different perspective. If your thinking is good but you do something terrible, that doesn't make it a good thing. Look at Luke – he thought he could defeat the Emperor once and for all. There's nothing nobler than that, I don't think. But we all know where that got him. And Tycho and I – what we did was about revenge. But no one can say Tycho shouldn't have done what he did, though you might say that about me."

"It's not the same, though."

"I know. I never said it was. All I'm trying to say is that, if you weren't a Jedi, what you did wouldn't be _that_ bad. And I think that the only way you're going to get over it is if you forget for a minute that you are a Jedi. It becomes a lot more forgivable that way."

---------------

Hobbie and Inyri were sitting next each other on the couch in the pilots' lounge. They were near enough to occasionally touch the other's hand, but not enough to raise suspicion from the rest of their squadron. Not that suspicions weren't already raised enough for Inyri's taste. Inyri reached for her caf, "accidentally" brushing her hand against Hobbie's knee in the process. "Jesina's going to join the squadron, right?"

He nodded. "I think so." He waved Tycho over and relayed her question to him.

"Yes, she is," the Alderaanian replied, "though I'm not sure where we're going to put her, since we have a full roster."

"That's a switch," Wes muttered, joining the conversation and glancing at Inyri and Hobbie's hands – which were just a little too close. Inyri noticed his gaze and tried to move away as subtly as possible. She wasn't sure he bought it, though.

"She can have my position," Teril said, stepping backward slightly when everyone fixed their attention on her.

"Is there something you haven't told us, Flight Officer?" Tycho asked.

"I just came from talking to General Antilles. There was a message waiting for me when we got on board. My old unit took heavy losses and they need people desperately." She shook her head. "They're being sent out again, short at least four. General Antilles just approved my transfer back. It might be only temporary, but…" She shrugged. "You have an opening now."


	29. Of Weddings and Prisoners

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

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Chapter 29: Of Weddings and Prisoners

---------------

"I think we should take Leia up on her offer to arrange this wedding," Wedge muttered.

"She has so much else to worry about, though," Iella replied. "This is our wedding. We shouldn't put it off on her."

"She offered…I think she likes doing this stuff. Though I can't imagine why. Besides, you can't get out of bed, Iella. You're still recovering."

"I _can_ get out of bed…the doctor is just too blasted overprotective," she argued.

"Just which university did you get your medical degree from?" Wedge retorted. He understood her frustration – he was hardly a model patient himself when injured, but, well, that was him. This was her.

Iella scowled, and voiced his thoughts. "Yes, because _you _always listen to doctors so well."

"Iella…half the bones in your body were broken. If not for Durron putting you into a trance – which I didn't even know they could do, by the way – you'd be dead. Can't you relax for a while?"

"No, I can't. I hate just sitting here."

"There's nothing going on right now, not that needs your attention. We could go after Luke, but Mara Jade won't tell us what she knows, and Karrde's not talking to us either."

"There's our wedding, Wedge!"

"Iella, does picking out flowers and table linens and food choices to accommodate Force only knows how many people honestly sound like fun to you?"

"If it's for our wedding, it does!"

_Women._

---------------

Tycho looked up as Wedge came into the office. "How you doing?"

"Iella is, um, what's the word…insane."

"Oh?" Tycho raised an eyebrow at his friend. They'd been granted two weeks of restricted leave upon their return to Coruscant, but he and Wedge had been in nearly every day for a few hours, before Wedge went home to drive Iella crazy by fawning over her. "I'm not surprised, given how you've been acting since she was allowed to go home."

"You really think I've gone overboard?"

"Wedge, she was hurt, but she's an adult. She knows her body better than you do." Tycho shook his head when Wedge's face reddened slightly. "She knows her limits. If she says she's all right, give her the benefit of the doubt. And remember, med droids are programmed to be conservative about time estimates and instructions, and doctors are careful because they don't want to get sued." He shrugged. "Let her be."

"She wants to go running all over Coruscant planning the wedding."

"That's how women are about weddings. Winter wants to go all over Coruscant with her – and it's not even her wedding!"

"Let's talk about something else?" Wedge begged him, and Tycho laughed. His friend was already getting the "crazed groom"-look. Well, maybe he shouldn't say 'already' – the date was only three weeks away.

"Any news on Luke?"

"Karrde won't say a word – probably because Mara won't let him. Cracken still hasn't been able to pick up anything, which worries me more than anything else. I don't believe that what was going on is some isolated incident. It's got to be tied to something else, but I don't know what, and I don't know how to find out. In the report he filed, Durron said they were Imperials, so why haven't we seen any activity elsewhere?"

"Because they're waiting to pop their heads out until they're ready for us," Tycho replied. He sighed.

Wedge sighed. "I'd rather talk about the wedding."

---------------

"What do we do about Wedge's wedding?" Hobbie asked.

Inyri stopped drinking mid-sip. "Um, I don't think _we_ need to do anything but show up…and buy a gift. It's Wedge's wedding."

"I mean…about you and me. Do we go together?"

"I think we can," Inyri said slowly. "Everyone knows we're friends. As long as we don't act like we're anything more than that, we should be fine."

"Inyri, why are you so dead set on not letting people know about us?" They'd had this conversation a handful of times since they'd gotten together – not that he was sure when, exactly, that had happened. And all he knew was that she cringed every time he suggested that they tell anyone – even if it was only Wedge.

"Other than that I can only imagine what Wes will do to us?" she asked, and he nodded. Wes was his best friend, and as much as the two of them had tormented Wedge about Iella, he knew he could convince him to back off if he started to really bother Inyri.

"Hobbie, this wedding…no matter how small Iella and Wedge want it to be, is going to be huge. They're public figures. Do you realize what the sludge news is doing to them?"

"Yeah…Wedge said Iella doesn't even answer calls anymore."

"Well, the same thing will happen to us. Maybe not _as_ bad, since we're not quite as important as Wedge and Iella, but…just the same, I don't want to go through that. Not yet. I can't. This is hard enough for me as it is – I haven't…I haven't been with anyone since Thyne. Having the entire galaxy watching…that's not something I can deal with right now."

"I understand you not wanting everyone and their brother to know, but what about the squadron?"

"Hobbie, if we tell one person, someone else will hear about it, and then…" She waved her hands around. "I just, maybe I'm paranoid, but please, just humor me?"

He frowned. She looked ready to cry. Slowly, he stood and put his arms around her. "Whatever you need. But don't worry about Wes…he does know how to be a decent person…sometimes…when it suits him." He knew he was sounding less convincing by the second. "Or when threatened."

---------------

Mara pushed her hood back slightly, just enough to be able to see the faces of the handful of people scattered throughout the bar. It was still early, but the type of people she was supposed to be meeting were the type to inhabit a bar before mid-day.

They didn't seem to be here right now, though.

"Are we actually meeting someone?" Kyp asked in a low voice, "or are we just hoping we'll stumble across them?"

She glanced at him, rolled her eyes, and went back to scanning the mostly empty establishment. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his scowl and heard him mumble some complaint about her not telling him anything but expecting him to know everything. "I don't expect you to know a thing," she replied curtly. "That's the point."

He opened his mouth to reply but she kicked him under the table, indicating with her eyes that there was something that might demand their attention. A man wearing a cloak similar to theirs was leaning casually against the bar. The bartender said something to him that made the man glance toward her and Kyp. The man waited a moment, replied, and then headed in their direction.

He sat down across from her and looked them both over for a second. "You work for Karrde?" he asked finally.

"Well, that all depends," Mara said carefully. She hadn't dealt with this man before.

"On?"

"On who's asking. And why they want the information." She knew that was a tacit 'yes' but it served its purpose – it told him she was nobody's fool.

"I want it because I have a message to deliver to an agent of his."

"Then you're in the right place."

"The man you're looking for has been released…he should be on Coruscant within the week…with no recollection of where he's been or how he got there."

With that, he stood and turned, and was out the door before she could say another word.

---------------

Iella smiled smugly as she headed to the holocomm unit to call Winter. "The warden has decided to set me free," she said when the other woman's face appeared.

"Shopping?"

"For a dress," Iella confirmed. "Call Leia and Mirax for me, will you?"

"Will do. Meet you at your place?"

"One hour. Oh, and remind me to thank Tycho."

Winter raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I'm fairly sure I have him to thank for saving my sanity."


	30. Wedding Fluff and Then Some

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 30: Wedding Fluff – and Then Some

---------------

"I think you made a wonderful choice," Winter said approvingly. "I wish I'd had one as nice." She and Tycho had been married in a small, private ceremony a few years earlier, during one of the handful of times they'd managed to be on the same planet together long enough to do it. They'd never gotten around to planning a large celebration – not that either of them seemed to mind at all.

Iella turned slowly, reveling in the feel of the silky fabric of her wedding gown. Off-the-shoulder straps, a fitted bodice, and a flowing skirt that just brushed the floor – all made of a shimmering material and dotted with crystals to catch the light perfectly. It had a hint of blue to the material, livening up the color just a bit. "And it fits perfectly."

"That's what fittings are for, dear," the seamstress droid replied. "Just a couple of final adjustments, and you should be able to pick it up two days before your wedding day."

"You can finish it in three days?" Winter asked.

"For the future wife of General Antilles, we can do whatever is necessary," the droid replied. "I will just go and get the garment bag."

"Someone programmed it to say that," Iella muttered. "I swear." She looked around. "Janson didn't know where I was getting my dress, did he?"

Winter laughed. "You're paranoid."

"I know. But do you blame me?"

"Iella, Wes may be a practical joker, but he's not cruel. He would never do anything to ruin your wedding."

"I know," Iella said again and sighed as the droid returned to help her out of the gown. Twenty buttons ran down the back, in addition to several other fasteners. "You know, Winter, you better plan on being glued to my side that day – because I could never get out of this thing on my own."

"Mirax and I can take shifts," the white-haired woman replied. "Now, go get dressed."

---------------

"Everyone would be pretty mad at me if I went for a normal tuxedo, wouldn't they?" Wedge asked with a sigh, staring at himself in the mirror. He made a face at the dress uniform.

"Well, Iella probably wouldn't…and the Rogues wouldn't mind too much. But everyone else…yeah, they wouldn't be happy. You'd hear about it from Leia for the rest of your life."

"It might just be worth it."

Tycho shook his head. "You look good in the uniform, Wedge. Besides, ninety percent of your guests will be wearing them, too…and I have it on good authority that Cracken hates it almost as much as we do. If you don't wear it, no one else has to. And you wouldn't want to deprive Cracken of that, would you?"

Wedge laughed out loud. "I doubt he'll _look_ as irritated with it as we will, though."

"No, he is a pretty fair actor," Tycho agreed. "But just think of his suffering. And look at it like this – you're in better shape than he is, so you'll look better in it, too."

Wedge glanced in the mirror once again. "It really doesn't look _too_ bad, does it?"

"That's it…let the ego out for a spin."

Wedge turned on him. "I'm going to turn you over to Wes."

"Then who'll keep him under control on the big day?"

---------------

Winter and Iella sat down to lunch, waiting for Mirax and Leia to meet them. "What's next on the list?"

"The florist, and the caterer," Iella replied absently, looking at her datapad. "Is it really only five days away?"

Winter nodded and sipped her water. "Aren't you excited?"

"I'm half expecting Wedge to be called away the night before, or for someone to show up with blasters and start shooting."

"I suddenly don't regret not having a big wedding," Winter replied.

"I wish you had," a voice from behind her said. "I would have loved planning it with you." Leia came around and sat down beside her.

"I know you would have. Don't you get enough of that by being the Chief of State?" Winter asked.

"They don't let me do the fun things," Leia responded with a grin. "Where's Mirax?"

A brunette woman set a shopping bag down and dropped into a chair. "I'm here. Finally." She sighed.

"What's wrong?" Iella asked.

"You have got to talk to him!" she exclaimed. "He won't talk to me, except to apologize, and half the time he just sits in Valin's room, staring at the crib. And when Corran comes near him, Valin just cries!" Mirax and Corran's son Valin was only a few months old.

"I don't think there's anything I can do," Iella said. "I've tried talking to him; so has Wedge. I'm pretty sure there's only one person who can do any good – and he's Force knows where right now."

"I actually have some news about that…well, potential news, anyway," Leia interjected. She waited until their eyes were all on her and said, "Mara sent me a message. Apparently, she's learned that Luke is on his way back here – but he's not supposed to know anything about where he's been or what happened to him."

Iella looked at Winter, shaking her head. "I don't need to worry about my wedding being shot up. It'll get bombed."

---------------

Mara sat in the cockpit scowling out at the white lines of hyperspace. "This is ridiculous."

"What is?" Kyp asked, coming up behind her.

She turned her scowl on him. "You weren't supposed to be there."

"Well, I am. What's ridiculous?"

"This whole blasted trip. Someone's having fun with us, and I don't feel like playing along."

Kyp sat down in the copilot's seat. "You have any guesses?"

She crossed and uncrossed her legs. "No. That's the problem. I don't have a clue what's going on." She paused, thinking over what she did know – which wasn't much at all. "We have a dead Skaloc Councilor, two dead Sullustan Senators – all supposedly killed by a Jedi, though it was actually only made to look that way. And this was all by Imperials who then holed up on an asteroid in the Hoth System – for what reason eludes me. Then we have a Jedi Master gone missing, who is supposedly being returned as we speak – but isn't supposed to remember a thing. And nobody knows anything."

"That sounds about right." Kyp was silent for a moment and then said, "It's like someone wants us to know that he's here, but doesn't want to actually do anything yet."

"I think you're right," Mara muttered. "Whoever it is probably doesn't feel strong enough to make a move yet. And it worries me that neither Karrde nor NRI – not that I put a whole lot of faith in them anyway – can pick up anything." She frowned. "Either whoever's behind this is very dumb – doesn't have a leg to stand on, and that's why no one's seeing anything, or they're very smart."

"Probably smart," Kyp said.

"Yeah," Mara agreed. "That's how my luck goes." She sighed. "Next time I go running across the galaxy to find Skywalker, use the Force to slap me upside the head."

"I'm really_ not_ suicidal, Jade."

---------------

"You want _how many_ guards?" Wedge exclaimed.

"At least twenty – two for every entrance, and one assigned to wherever Iella will be getting ready, and one assigned to Iella herself. As well as, of course, any we assign to you. She's a great asset to Intelligence, and I'd hate to lose her," Airen Cracken replied.

"I can handle myself. And, in case you've forgotten, every member of the wedding party carries a blaster on a regular basis." He sighed. "Did Iella agree to this?" Wedge turned to look at Leia.

"We haven't spoken to her yet," Leia admitted. "But General Cracken does have a point. This has become a very publicized event. It would be crazy not to have security."

"I…security is one thing. This is a wedding, not a state dinner."

"It may as well be," Cracken replied.

Wedge dropped into a chair. "Why are you bringing this up now?" This was something that they should have hammered out when they first set the date. In fact, he'd been under the impression that they had - that they'd decided that the Rogues and their other armed associates would be security enough. "What's changed?"

Leia sat down beside him and filled him in on what she'd learned from Mara. "The timing…it suggests that your wedding might be targeted."

"Did you tell Iella this?" Leia nodded. "What did she say?"

"That she doesn't need to worry about people shooting up the wedding – that it will be bombed instead."

Wedge smiled in spite of himself. "That sounds like her." He ran a hand through his hair. "Talk to her. And whatever she says goes."

---------------

"When shall the prisoner reach his destination?"

The Captain turned to look at the man in the Admiral's uniform. "Four days, sir. Everything is exactly as scheduled."

"We've retrieved our people in the Hoth System?"

"Yes, sir."

"And how are things on Coruscant?"

"Exactly as expected, sir. They continue to go ahead with their plans. As we last heard, they'd assigned a number of guards to the banquet hall in which Antilles and Wessiri will be wed." He paused. "Sir, I'm afraid I don't quite comprehend what we are doing here."

"Paranoia and confusion can be powerful weapons. Our targets are off-balance, jumping at the slightest sound or movement. And they shall never see us coming."


	31. Bachelor and Bachelorette

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 31: Bachelor and Bachelorette

---------------

"Iella, your veil is falling off," Mirax told her, standing and swaying in her effort to straighten the headpiece they'd made Iella wear to the bar they'd selected for her bachelorette party. She and Winter, Leia, Jesina, and Inyri had pitched in to throw the party. They'd planned on inviting the ladies of Wraith squadron, but the unit was off on assignment.

"I'm fallin' off," Iella murmured, clutching the table to steady herself. "You guys weren' s'posed to get me drunk," she slurred.

"That's why we did this _two_ days before the wedding," Winter replied. "If we'd done it the night before, no one'd show up."

"If half the people we invited didn' show up," Iella replied, hiccupping, "I wouldn' mine a' all."

"That's what you get for being a public figure," Leia said, sipping the glass of wine she held. From the looks of it, she was the least intoxicated of all of them. "You know about a million people, and they all have to be invited or you're going to make things hard on yourself."

"I know," Iella muttered. "Trus' me, I know."

"Enough about pol'tics," Mirax muttered. "Which one of your new husban's frien's do you fine the mos' attractive?"

Jesina coughed. "You're not s'posed to ask her about other men right before her wedding."

"It's called a bachelorette party," Inryi paused, taking another drink from her whiskey, "for a reason." She hiccupped and looked back at Iella. "And I, for one, would like to hear this."

"Phys'cally attractive?" Iella asked, and Mirax nodded.

"I bet I know," Jesina said in a singsong voice.

"Who?" Winter asked as all eyes swiveled toward Jesina.

"Janson," she replied smugly, and Iella sputtered, face flushed from more than just the alcohol.

"I thin' she's right," Mirax mumbled, casting a glance at Iella.

"How did you know?" Winter asked.

Jesina shrugged. "He's the mos' like Wedge," she replied, "not that they'd ever admit it."

---------------

"I'm coming," Wedge muttered as Tycho literally dragged him toward the door of his office.

"You know, Iella's been out for two hours already," Tycho pointed out.

"I know, but she doesn't run a squadron full of delinquents," Wedge retorted.

"We take offense to that," Wes replied.

"I still haven't forgotten that little Ewok stunt on Hoth," the Corellian replied, eyes narrowing.

Janson held up his hands. "That wasn't me. I told you then that I had nothing to do with it."

"And I told you to find out who it was," his CO replied as he turned off the lights and locked the door behind them. "I'm finding you guilty by default. And if any Ewoks show up at my wedding, I'm throwing you in the brig."

Before Wes could reply, Tycho spoke up. "Why didn't you ever ask around? I know who it was."

Both of them turned on him as Hobbie backed slowly away. "Jes and Hobbie," he replied. "Mostly Jes."

Wedge spun around, mouth open, to look at the Raltiirian, but never said a word as his eyes moved past Hobbie to the man standing behind him. Luke looked thin, tired, a little shaken – and more confused than Wedge had ever seen him. "Luke!"

The Jedi leaned against a wall. "Wedge," he replied softly.

"Where have you been? Mara and Kyp were halfway across the galaxy looking for you."

"I know. I just came from talking to General Cracken." He frowned. "I tried comming Leia, but the hysterical giggling in the background made it difficult to hear her."

Despite their concern over their newly returned friend, the pilots dissolved into laughter. "Iella's…bachelorette…party," Wedge managed. The whole idea wasn't that amusing, really – but in combination with the expression on Luke's face it was.

"Speaking of which," Wes said once he'd stopped laughing, "feel like going to a bachelor's party, Luke? You can fill us in on the way to the bar."

"I'm afraid I have nothing to fill you in with – I remember contacting Kyp a couple of times, but there's just a whole in my memory from the last time I spoke with Kyp to waking up in a med bay here."

"How did you get here?" Wedge asked as they started down the corridor.

"General Cracken believes I was…delivered…on board a freighter that docked on-planet. Apparently, I was found in a supply room after someone sent a message to Cracken."

Wedge sighed. "This is ridiculous."

---------------

Mirax watched the male dancers on the stage appreciatively, whistling at all the appropriate times. A glance over at Iella told her the guest of honor didn't seem to be as entertained as the other woman – no doubt thinking about her future husband.

"Are you and Wedge spending the next couple of nights together?"

Iella flushed and looked away, and Mirax laughed. "I didn't mean like that. I just…" She shook her head. "Iella, even I find Wedge attractive, but I don't want to know about his sex life. Really."

"You've talked to me about Corran's," Iella pointed out, and Mirax noticed that she wasn't slurring her words as much. They'd all slowed down on the booze. She glanced at her chrono. The boys were probably just getting started.

"Well, yeah, but you and Corran almost slept together at some point when you were working together."

"You and Wedge never came close like that?" Iella asked her, looking surprised.

Mirax shook her head. "Nope…he was always more the brotherly figure." She shrugged, shaking her head. "Is two days before the wedding really the time you want to be asking who else your future husband might have been with?"

"Why not?" Iella asked. "It's not my wedding day yet…"

"Yeah, but…aw, hell, it's not like there's a whole flood of women in Wedge's past. There're probably more in Corran's, now that I think about it."

"I can almost guarantee that," Iella replied, giggling.

They might all be sobering off, but that didn't mean they were sober. Mirax signaled the nearest shirtless male – thank the Force for the female-oriented clubs on Coruscant – for another round of drinks.

---------------

Wedge sipped his Whyren's Reserve and sighed. "One rule," he said, and was greeted by the protests of every male officer in his squadron. "One rule – nothing about work. I can't take it anymore." That was greeted by a round of applause.

He felt badly going out and having fun when Luke had just been released after an experience that had to have badly shaken him, but work had come first since the day he'd joined the Alliance. He needed a few nights to himself, didn't he? And he knew he'd be thinking about work all day on his wedding day – the possibility of something going wrong was just too high.

"Well, since that's your only rule," Wes commented, and Wedge felt his chair moving underneath him, "I suggest you pay attention."

"What?" Wedge asked, glancing around at the put-on innocent expressions on most of the faces staring back at him. Finally he fixed his glare on Tycho, who shook his head.

"I had nothing to do with this part. I picked the place – because I knew they couldn't get too out of control here."

"You should be careful not to underestimate us, Colonel," Wes replied slyly as three scantily women made their way onto the stage from behind the curtains.

Facing glares from both Wedge and Tycho and a resigned sigh from Hobbie, Wes shrugged. "I had to. You know you'd have been disappointed if I didn't."

---------------

"So, how was the party?" Iella asked Wedge, smiling brightly despite the pounding in her head.

"Um, it was…all right," her husband-to-be replied. "Tycho picked where, but Wes organized most of it."

"Strippers?" she asked.

"Uh-huh." He nodded and winced.

"Headache?"

"Uh-huh." He didn't nod this time.

She slouched down on the sofa. "Me too."

He brightened slightly. "Luke was there."

Her eyes widened. "Really? How did he get back?"

"Brought in on some anonymous freighter and dumped in a supply room in one of the public hangars. Whoever it was messaged Cracken about where he was and Cracken sent some MPs." He paused. "The message Mara got about him not remembering anything – that was true. He remembers communicating with Durron but nothing between then and when he woke up in the Palace med center."

"Wonderful." She picked up a pillow and hugged it to her chest. "None of this makes any sense."

He massaged his temples and sat down beside her. "Does anything ever?"

She leaned against him and he got the hint, shifting his position and putting his arm around her shoulders. "No, but I can hope, can't I?"

"Wasted effort," he replied.

They were silent for a moment before she asked, "Are you worried about the wedding?"

"I…I don't know. I don't know if I should be. A lot can happen, but this just seems like someone's idea of a fun way to pass the time. Luke was kidnapped, and released. The deaths of those Senators were supposed to look like a Jedi was responsible, but that was all a trick."

"The bomb on Hoth was no joke, though," Iella pointed out.

"I know. Which is what is actually worrying me. If nothing _real_ had happened yet, I wouldn't be that concerned. But if they could get to us on Hoth, they can do it here, no matter what we have for security."

Iella sighed and shook her head, curling her legs up underneath her and relishing the fact that they were together and didn't have to talk about this if they didn't want to. And she didn't want to. "Let's talk about something else, huh?" She rested her head on his shoulder and turned on the holovid screen.

---------------

Iella looked over Mirax's shoulder into the mirror as the other woman adjusted her veil on her head – the real one, this time. Winter was standing behind her, fixing her hair so that it sat just right under the headpiece. She raised her left hand and stared at it. "I'm shaking."

"I'm not surprised," Leia said with a smile from the doorway. "You _are_ getting married in," she glanced at her chrono, "thirty minutes or so. You're supposed to be nervous."

"Most brides don't have to worry about their weddings getting bombed," Iella pointed out. "I want a drink."

She saw Winter's face appear beside hers as her friend leaned to the side to make eye contact with her. "Yup, she's Corellian." Everyone laughed.

"Where's Corran?" Iella asked a moment later, half-turning toward the newcomer. Her former partner was not only giving her away, but he was acting as her guard as she went from the bridal suite to the chamber for the ceremony.

"He's outside," Leia replied. "He's just waiting for you."

She turned back to face the mirror. Mirax and Winter were on either side of her now, adjusting their hair and the shimmering pale red sheaths they were wearing as attendants. Each gown had a slit up the side allowing them access to the holdout blasters that each woman – Iella included – was wearing strapped to her leg. "I'm ready. I think."

---------------

Wedge stood at the head of the aisle, eyes everywhere but the entrance. He was watching each door in turn – all the doors that they'd assigned guards to. Then he eyed the windows, replaced for the event with transparisteel that was supposed to be unbreakable. His head was just generally swiveling around in no particular direction.

"You're going to make yourself dizzy," Tycho whispered.

He met his friend's eyes for a second, glad to have this man standing beside him on this day. He'd spent a great deal of time thinking about who to ask – Tycho or Luke. But over the last several years Tycho had grown even closer to him than Luke had been. There was no one he trusted more.

Besides, Luke was still here, in the crowd – that was the only way he could think of to describe the mass of people who'd been invited – and that was more than Wedge had expected after the news of his friend's disappearance.

"I know," he whispered back. "I can't help it." Hobbie and Wes, standing off behind Tycho, offered him supportive smiles but remained silent.

Tycho grinned. "Nervous?" In response, Wedge fixed him with a glare. "It's going to be fine."

"I know," he replied again. Slowly, he moved his hand down to the butt of his blaster. As he'd reminded Leia and General Cracken, every member of the wedding party was armed – as were a high percentage of their guests. The Rogues, Leia and Han, Admiral Ackbar, Generals Cracken and Bel Iblis, Luke – all were prepared to act if necessary.

It frightened him that they'd had to take these precautions, but if carrying a blaster – which he did everyday anyway – on his wedding day meant there was a greater chance they'd make it through the end of the day alive and unharmed, he'd do it without complaint.

The first strains of the wedding march jerked him from his thoughts. Slowly, the doors at the end of the aisle opened and Leia appeared, bouquet of flowers in hand. A few steps behind her were Mirax and then Winter. As his bride's attendants started down the aisle, he got his first glimpse of Iella, walking behind them, on Corran's arm.


	32. Kiss the Bride

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 32: Kiss the Bride

---------------

Iella was clutching the bouquet in her hands so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. She watched as Winter reached the second row of seats – that was her cue to start walking. She turned her head slightly to look at Corran, who gave her an encouraging smile, and then refocused on the aisle in front of her. She pasted a smile on her face and tried to look at the people who were turned around in their seats to face her, but looking and walking were too difficult for her to manage at this point in time, so she focused entirely on putting one foot in front of the other and not falling.

Ahead of her she saw Leia step off to the side, and then Mirax, and then Winter until finally there was no one left between her and the man she was about to marry. She continued – barely – up the aisle, up the steps. After what seemed like an eternity, she was beside Wedge and Corran was whispering words of encouragement in her ear as he took his leave of her to take his seat in the front row. She turned to him, clutching his hand, and mouthed "thank you." He squeezed her hand once more, stepping back and down the steps.

Taking a deep breath, she turned to face the officiant, hearing him begin his greeting just as the music ended. But then she glanced at Wedge out of the corner of her eye and didn't hear another word until Wedge jostled her arm.

"Do you, Iella, take this man to be your husband, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, as long as you both shall live?"

At that instant her mouth went dry, and she was afraid for a second that she wouldn't be able to speak. But, somehow, she managed. "I do."

He turned to Wedge. "Do you, Wedge, take this woman to be your wife, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, as long as you both shall live?"

He turned to her, favoring her with a warm smile. "I do."

"By the power vested in me by the planetary government of Coruscant, I now pronounce you husband and wife." He turned to each of them in turn. "You may now kiss the bride."

Just as their lips met, she heard a click and her eyes flew open and she found herself looking into Wedge's own startled eyes. She shoved the officiant off the top step as Wedge ran toward Leia. Iella hit the floor hard, rolling down the steps as the dais came apart and smoke filled the room.

---------------

Mara walked briskly down the boarding ramp and across the private hangar in the Palace, to which access was granted only to friends of the New Republic higher-ups. Kyp followed behind her, footsteps echoing in the silence.

She headed for the hall where Antilles' wedding was being held. Upon landing she'd received a message that Luke would be there and wanted to speak with her.

She stopped at each of the security checkpoints, showing her own and Durron's identification, and mused about how many additional ones there were today – all because of the wedding, of course – and how useless they all were. If someone wanted to use this event to get their point across, they'd do it. And no amount of security crackdown was going to stop them.

They were just approaching the last one when a siren sounded. Mara broke into a run. _Occasionally, I hate being right,_ she thought to herself, shoving by the last guard and trying the door.

"Locked," she muttered. "Damn it." She could hear yelling from the other side and pounding on the door. She stepped back and drew her lightsaber, then turned to Durron. "Push them back from the door."

"Huh? Oh." Raising a hand, he closed his eyes and stood perfectly still for just a moment. Then he opened his eyes and nodded and she activated her lightsaber, running the blade through the lock. Stepping back to get out of the way of the inevitable stream of people, she looked over at Durron.

"Let them go."

In seconds the old-fashioned doors burst open and a stream of people – notably, all politicians, and none of the military officers in attendance – rushed out. Mara was just barely able to keep sight of Durron in the crowd as she fought her way toward the door.

She finally made it through, ducking under the flailing arms of the fleeing guests. Once past them, she turned back briefly, looking at them disgustedly. This was one of the reasons – one of the many reasons – she couldn't stand politicians. In the clinch, they'd run like children, looking to save their own rear ends.

Turning back to the face the front of the chamber, her eyes went first to the crowd of men in dress uniforms at the head of the aisle. She jogged over to them, hearing Durron's footsteps behind her.

---------------

Just as Leia got to her feet, she heard the door open and saw people flood from the chamber. She turned her attention back to Wedge as he extended a hand to help his wife to her feet. Iella didn't bother to smooth her hair or adjust her dress or veil, looking around the room as the smoke cleared. "What happened?"

"A fake bomb," Wes reported from where he knelt by the dais.

"Was that door supposed to be locked?" a new voice interrupted, and Leia turned to see Mara and Kyp.

"No, it wasn't."

"Well, I just destroyed the lock. I figured that was better than letting people kill each other to escape from…" she looked over at the podium, which now lay in neat pieces on the ground, "a smoke bomb." She coughed and waved a hand in front of her face.

Wedge clenched his teeth. "These games have to stop."

"They're not games," Mara said. "They're warnings. Someone is telling you that he's here, and showing you what he can do. _I_ barely made it through the security in the Palace, but someone was able to get in here, plant a bomb, and lock you all inside. You could all be dead now."

Luke nodded. "He's measuring us. I get the feeling it's someone who's familiar with us – maybe someone who lost to one of us," he waved his hand around the room, "once before."

"And he wants to see if he stands a chance against us now, before he tries anything big?" Wedge asked.

"Possibly," Luke conceded. "It's certainly coming across that way."

"Well, so far whoever it is is probably thinking that they've got it made," Iella muttered. "None of us has been particularly inept at heading off their…activities."

"Then all we can do is show him he's not scaring us," Leia replied as Han slipped an arm around her waist. She glanced over at Corran, who was standing behind Mirax, hugging her to him. "What do you think?" Clearly, Iella agreed with Luke's assessment of the situation, but she was interested to see what the other CorSec-trained mind thought.

"Hmm? I think Luke's right, and I think you're right. This is the type of thing we saw a lot of – if people knew we were chasing them and thought they were smart, they'd play these kinds of games – a sort of, 'can't catch me' thing. The best thing to do was not to let them get to us. If we kept it up, ignored the little stuff on the side, they got tired of it and made a real move that we could do something with."

"So what do we do?" Iella asked, frowning.

"Well, I don't know about you," Corran replied, "but I'm going to go dance with my wife and celebrate my former partner's wedding. And if anyone tries anything else, we'll do with it then."

---------------

After being assured that there was no actual danger in the hall, the guests allowed themselves to be herded into the ballroom for the reception. It had taken a while for people to relax enough to start dancing, but half an hour in, the party was in full swing.

Winter bit into a cracker and looked over at where her husband was dancing with Jesina. Technically, Jesina was Janson's date, but he was off getting food or harassing Wedge and Iella. She was resting her head on his shoulder, laughing. The rest of the guests were acting in a similar fashion. One would never have been able to guess that a "bomb" had gone off at the end of the wedding ceremony that was the reason for this party.

She heard a voice at her side. "I can see myself wearing this again; how about you?" It was Mirax.

"Hmm?" Winter replied. "Oh, yes. It's very nice."

"What's wrong?" Mirax asked.

"I…nothing."

"Liar," the other woman scolded. "Now tell."

"It's…" she waved a hand toward Tycho and Jesina. "Do you know if they were ever…together?"

"Huh?" Recognition dawned in Mirax's face. "Oh!" Winter felt her face grow warm. "Winter, you have nothing to worry about. They were together, once, but it was back before Tycho was even engaged to Nyiestra. They tried, and it just didn't work."

"Why?" Tycho had never talked much about Jesina at all, and her return from the dead hadn't changed that. She knew the woman professionally – she'd worked with her several times as Keyra Nitram – but she knew next to nothing about Tycho's relationship with her. She did know, however, that Mirax had been friendly with Jesina when the pilot worked for her father.

"They're friends – best friends – but as lovers, they just didn't work. They called it quits after a couple of months…you really have nothing to worry about. Tycho loves you – more than anything. And Jesina, well, I'm pretty sure her interest lies elsewhere."

"Oh?" Winter followed her friend's eyes and lit on Janson, who was threading his way through the dancing couples toward Tycho and Jesina. "You mean, her and Wes?"

"Wedge is pretty sure they had something going back during the first time they were at Hoth. And from what I heard from her about everything that went on this time around, she's, shall we say, interested in rekindling that. Janson doesn't seem to be though. He's still upset about her joining Intel and not telling anyone."

Winter watched as Wes cut in on Tycho and Jesina, spinning the woman away. Then she felt a hand on her back, pushing her toward the dance floor, and heard Mirax say, "Go dance with your husband."

---------------

Wedge dipped Iella and pulled her back up, smiling at her laughing face. He was amazed that they'd put the earlier…mishap…behind them so quickly, but he was glad just the same. She'd been through so much lately – she deserved a day of happiness, especially on her wedding day.

"I never knew you could dance this well," Iella said, and he could feel the flush spreading across his cheeks.

"Yeah, well, we had a lot of spare time the first week or so on Hoth." He pulled his wife close and reveled in the sparkle in her eyes. Unbidden, the memories of waiting for her to come out of bacta on Hoth sprang into his mind, and he blinked back tears. He hated to think of how close he'd come to losing her.

She noticed the tears – he could see it in the way the expression on her face changed. But, sensing that now was not the time to ask, she just smiled brighter and continued their banter. "And just who taught you to dance?"

He shook his head, laughing. "I'll never tell."

"I'll just ask Janson," she replied.

"And I'll threaten him with KP and guard duty for a month," Wedge retorted. It was, in fact, Janson who'd taught him. Not that he'd ever admit that willingly.

She laughed. "Not if I get to him first."

In response, he twirled her away and pulled her back, kissing her hard right as she came face to face with him again. "I love you," he murmured when she finally broke the kiss.

"I love you too."

---------------

As much as she didn't want anyone to know that she and Hobbie were together, Inyri was enjoying dancing with him in front of all these people. Together, they'd done everything they could think of to dispel the rumors that they were anything more than friends. She knew Hobbie wanted to tell Wedge, Tycho, and Janson – at the very least – and she appreciated his efforts that much more because of it.

There was one other reason she had for not wanting to tell people – one she hadn't told him. She still hadn't said the words "I love you" – but she was pretty sure she did love him. And she was terrified of having a relationship that meant as much to her as this one fail with the entire galaxy watching.

He was holding her at a slight distance. She stepped slightly closer to him and smiled slightly at his surprised expression. Hesitating just a second, he tightened his hold on her. She leaned forward slowly, her lips near his ear, and said the words that she knew he'd been hoping to hear since he'd said them on Hoth.

---------------

Iella rested her head on Wedge's shoulder. For all their fears, their wedding day had been a success. She wasn't even really that irritated about what had happened at the end of their ceremony – she just kept reminding herself that it could have been much worse. Whoever was responsible had apparently not seen fit to completely destroy their wedding. It had been an interruption that scared the politicians – and that alone had made it almost worthwhile – but had hurt no one

She didn't want to think about this anymore. There was no need. Shaking her head, she stepped closer to Wedge and felt him move slightly. "You all right?" he asked.

She nodded, head still on his shoulder. "I'm fine. Everything's fine."

It was, too. She was dancing with her new husband – her husband! – at their wedding reception. As far as she was concerned, everything was perfect.


	33. Questions Unanswered

**Summary:** Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.

---------------

Chapter 33: Questions Unanswered

---------------

Iella tossed a few last things into her valet and closed it securely. She and Wedge were leaving for their honeymoon to Velusia tomorrow, and they were finishing the last-minute packing. "You have anything left to do?"

"_We _have that meeting with Cracken and the others, and then I have to meet with Tycho and Jesina, since the squadron is technically active even while I'm gone."

"That's not very smart," Iella murmured, tossing some soap and lotion into a smaller travel bag.

Wedge shrugged. "They don't have much choice. With everything that's been happening, in case whoever it is decides to show themselves, we need as many people as possible to be ready for it."

"I know, but still…" she shook her head. "I can't wait to get on that liner and not have to think for a week." They'd wanted to take a two-week vacation but the timing just hadn't worked. There was something Cracken needed her for, and the squadron couldn't spare Wedge longer than the week they were taking.

"I'll still have to call in," he reminded her, "just in case there's trouble."

"I know…but, well, you know what I mean."

"I know."

She kissed him quickly and headed out to the living room.

---------------

Wedge followed Iella into a conference room in the upper levels of the Palace. General Cracken was there already, as were Mara, Kyp, and Luke. Just as he and Iella took their seats, Jesina and Leia entered, taking the last remaining chairs.

"All right, we all know why we're here," Leia said without fanfare. "I need to know what, exactly, we're looking at."

"We can't give you an exact answer," Iella began.

"Then come as close as you can." She looked to Luke. "Do you remember anything about what you found out when you were on Skaloc IV?"

He shook his head. "I don't even remember what it was that I came across that I mentioned to Kyp. I've been trying, but I can't. They managed to wipe out just that part of my memory completely."

"Severe physical or psychological trauma, probably," Jesina said matter-of-factly. "My guess is that they subjected you to extreme physical or mental stress, and your mind blocked it. It's not something I'd necessarily expect to happen with a Jedi, but I wouldn't be shocked." She glanced over at Iella. "If we knew who had you, I'd be better able to tell you what, exactly, they might have done to you."

Wedge watched her carefully. She was in her element. Piloting was her first love, he knew, but Intelligence work was still where her expertise lay.

Luke nodded. "It is possible. Difficult to do, and it would, as you say, take an incredible amount of duress, but it is possible."

"All right, then," Leia said, "Can I assume, at least, that we're dealing with someone who knows something about dealing with Jedi? That they would have to in order to be able to do something like this?"

"That, or they'd have to be extremely skilled with torture techniques," Mara said. "I know of a few…technicians…who were around while the Emperor was still alive who could have done it."

"Do you have any names?" Leia asked.

Mara shook her head. "The people I knew of – they were Intelligence-trained. The names I knew wouldn't be their real ones, and even if they were, they wouldn't be the names they're going by now."

"Okay." Leia looked over her datapad. "How was Councilor Vikk killed? And Senators Kunb and Niev?"

"All three were poisoned with something that caused their throats to close up. It gave the impression to onlookers that they were being choked by a Force-user," Iella said. "The problem is, the official report hasn't been released publicly – on either planet. They refuse to release it, though we've tried to talk them into it, so the general public still believes that a Jedi was responsible."

"Wonderful. I'll see what I can do about that, especially once I have actual information to go to them with. Now, what do we know about the people you dealt with on Hoth? And about the bombing?"

It was Kyp's turn to speak. "When Luke didn't contact me again, I went to Sullust. I couldn't find out anything for certain, but the people I talked to pointed me toward a human man who went by the name Ikta Jues. Jues was the leader of that pirate gang – an organizer of sorts, but he didn't fly with them. He was also the pirates' link with the Imperials – who were the people behind what was going on in the Hoth System."

"What, exactly, was going on in the Hoth System?" Leia asked. "And how did you end up there?"

"It took a lot of acting on my part, but Jues finally decided that I might be of some use to him and I tagged along when his crew headed to Hoth. Unfortunately, I never learned what was going on there – everything fell apart too soon."

"Do you know _anything_ about what they were doing?" Wedge asked him.

"That's the problem," Kyp said. "They weren't _doing_ anything. They were there; the pirate squad was running patrols. I don't know if they were supposed to be laying low or if it was a setup of some kind."

"Looking at everything that's happened since," Jesina broke in, "I'd say the latter, probably meant to distract us from whatever actually was happening."

Leia made a couple of notes on her datapad. "Is there anyone left on that asteroid?"

"All of the Imperials were killed," Kyp answered. "The squad and Jues were the only people remaining on the asteroid when Horn and I left."

"They're gone now," Cracken said, speaking for the first time since the meeting had begun. "I sent a crew with even more sophisticated scanning equipment. They picked up no sign of life anywhere in that asteroid, and found nothing in the system."

"All right. The Imperials who were killed…I'm assuming that they died by Corran Horn's hand?" Leia looked to Kyp for confirmation, and he nodded. "That brings me to my next question – what happened to Commander Horn?"

Jesina related their capture on the asteroid and the vibroblade left behind to torment the man. "Corran said something then that didn't sit well with me. He said that whoever we were dealing with knew more about us than they should. The next thing he said was that he could only use telekinesis when he was angry."

"So he thought that whoever was responsible knew his…weakness?"

"I believe so," Jesina replied, nodding.

"Who could have known that?"

"Mirax, Booster Terrik, everyone who was on Yavin when Corran was," Luke said. "But no one there knew him by his real name, except for Mara and I."

"Corran keeps the fact that he's a Jedi a closely guarded secret," Wedge put in.

"So that doesn't help us, either." Leia sighed. "About the bombing of the base. Do we have any idea who that was – or how they did it?"

"Whoever it was is dead," Mara said quietly. "I could…I could feel it. Whether or not it was intended to be a suicide mission, it ended up that way."

"How did they get in?" Cracken asked, looking directly at Jesina.

She shook her head. "Someone was in on it. Only the North and South entrances were even accessible, and they were monitored constantly. The _only_ way someone could have gotten inside was with help from one of our people."

"Wonderful. This just keeps getting better," Leia muttered. Taking a deep breath and exhaling hard, she turned to look at Wedge and Iella. "Your wedding."

Iella massaged her temples. "I know. Another game. This whole thing – I'm convinced that's all this has been."

"What I said earlier," Jesina spoke up again, "about the whole thing on Hoth being a distraction – I mean it. I really think that everything has been intended to send us running in circles while the mastermind behind it does whatever he doesn't want us to see."

"And what do you think that is?" Cracken asked her.

"Given the Imperial involvement in this, I'd bet that there's a new warlord or Admiral looking to reinstate the Empire – and he's probably trying to distract us while he builds up enough of a force to come against us."

"Who could it be?" Leia asked, eyes lighting on Wedge.

He shook his head. He'd been asking himself that question over and over, trying to think of anyone they'd tangled with in the past who might have decided to reassert him- or herself, but had come up with naught. "I'm sorry. I just don't know."

"Anyone have a guess?" she asked, her gazing moving from face to face. No one had anything.

"Last question. What do we do?"

"We don't let it get to us," Iella said. "Like Corran said yesterday, when we ran into this with CorSec, we just let our quarry have his fun until he gave us something we could use. There's really nothing else we can do in this situation."

At that, Leia stood, the others following suit. "Thank you. Wedge, Iella, I appreciate your delaying your trip to meet with me. I think you'll agree that recent events warranted an _attempt_ at understanding them."

"It's not a problem, Leia," Wedge replied. Beside him, Iella shook her head.

"Just the same, it was appreciated. Those of you who _will_ be around over the course of the next week, please keep me informed of anything new." She hugged Wedge and Iella, wished them a peaceful honeymoon, and took her leave, everyone else walking out behind her.

---------------

Wedge leaned back in his chair. "I want to make this quick," he said as Tycho and Jesina came in. "Iella will kill me if we miss the liner we're booked on."

"Already feeling the pains of married life, Wedge?" Tycho asked, grinning.

Wedge glared at him and shook his head, refusing to indulge him. "Anyway, I'm going to check in twice a day. Iella isn't too fond of that idea, but it can't be helped. Once we get to Velusia, I'll get in touch with you with contact information for the week. Anything happens, you let me know immediately."

"Wedge, we aren't children being left alone at home while mom and dad go out to dinner," Jesina said with a laugh. "Tycho's commanded Rogue Squadron in the past. I'm sure that the two of us will be able to handle it."

"I know." He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. "This whole thing just has me nervous. If I knew what was going on, I wouldn't be so edgy. These games, though…" He shook his head. "It just has me worried."

"Relax, Wedge," Tycho said. "You're going on your honeymoon. Enjoy it."

Jesina smiled mischievously. "Yeah. You're looking like you could really use a vacation, Wedge."

He narrowed his eyes jokingly. "Get out of here."

"Gladly." She came around the desk and gave him a hug. "Have a good trip, Wedge. Force knows you've earned it." Then she turned back and headed for the door. "See you later, boss." She clapped Tycho on the shoulder and headed out the door.

Tycho looked Wedge over after she left. "She's right, you know. You deserve a break. You need one."

"Trust me, I know. I'm hoping the Force sees fit to give me one."

"I have a feeling," the Alderaanian said with a grin.

Wedge stood and gave him a quick hug, then watched him leave. Glancing around quickly to make sure there wasn't anything he'd forgotten, he shut off the lights, locked the door – and went home to his wife.

---------------

Okay, guys...here is the link to the good sequel. Eventually I might get around to putting it up here, but even if I do, it'll get updated over there more regularly...with none of this 24-hour-delay in putting up updates that ff.n has. The well-written version of the sequel is titled "Shades of the Past" and is at the following URL:  



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